Tsunagaru, Tied Together
by Akanekurochi
Summary: Rei, a first year who managed to make it into Ouran on a scholarship, has run away from a terrifying past. But when Rei is tricked into a certain club of boys, will that past ever be revealed? And why does Rei hate the twins so much? Read!
1. The Host's Introduction!

**Ouran High School Host Club**

**Tsunagaru  
****-Tied Together-**

**Summary:  
**Rei, a first year who managed to make it into Ouran on a scholarship, has run away from a terrifying past. But when Rei is tricked into a certain club of boys, will that past ever be revealed? And why does Rei hate the twins so much?

**Rating - Teen **

**Genres:  
**Humour/Drama/Romane

**A/N:  
**This story starts at episode three, and will be a mix between the anime and the manga. Please don't let the Intro scare you away. All things will be explained in due time. If you are not familiar with this wonderful anime, then please don't read this, as to some things will not make sense. This chapter is also very short, since it's only the intro. I will never let any actually chapter be this small again! xP

* * *

_I hated them._

_**Them**__, the men who abused women's emotions for their own profit._

_Why was it people like them got to live so happily, while people like __**her**__ could not. It didn't make any sense to me. Every time I thought about it, I just gained more hatred towards them._

_The rest of my pathetic school adored them, mostly because they were all the same; all rich bastards who had no care in the world._

_So why?_

_Why was it me, of all people, that had to be stuck with them?  
_

"Haruhi!" The freshman heard. She has just been wishing for a way to get away from Tamaki and his usual ranting, this time about spring or something.

Haruhi, dressed in a man's kimono and hakama pants, felt her body suddenly forced against something else, and her arm pulled on. She was used to being treated this way, and automatically knew who the culprits were. Two identical teenage boys had shoved their way into her personal bubble. One ruffled her brown hair and grabbed her around the neck with his arm. The other simply grabbed her right arm and showed her the small amount of papers in his hands.

She just stared up at the two orange haired, amber eyed boys, and mumbled a reply.

"Have you decided on what to take for your elective courses this semester?" they asked in unison. She was used to that, too. "How about French Conversation?"

"Hmm… Maybe," Haruhi mumbled, focusing on one of the sakura trees in front of her. She loved those trees, but never really had time to enjoy them. This was why.

"We should just take the same courses," they continued. "Because, you know, we're…." she felt them turn to somewhere behind her, where she knew Tamaki was. "In the **same class**."

Tamaki, the over dramatic blond sophomore he was, went into his typical corner of woe. This time though, it wasn't really a corner, just the side of one of the trees. Poor tree.

Haruhi ignored him as he argued about something with Kyoya, a black haired boy with glasses that was in Tamaki's grade. The twins continued to bombard her with questions. Actually, she didn't hear anyone.

It was what she saw that interested her.

Haruhi had moved her eyes away from the tree, to watch the last of their customers walk out the gates of the school grounds, away from the Host Clubs 'Sakura Viewing Festival.' However, the last of the girls had stopped by the entrance, and were giggling. The one pointed and blushed; the others shook their heads. She moved her eyes again to follow the girls, and raised an eyebrow.

'_Who is he?' _she thought.

The boy who the girls were swooning over was at the Host Club gate, fists clenched and at his sides. At the distance Haruhi was, which was very far away, she couldn't see his face that was hidden behind both his black bangs and the shadows of his hood. Haruhi wondered if he was even a member of her school, because he wasn't wearing the official uniform, just black jeans and a thin black shirt over his gray short-sleeved hoodie.

He hadn't noticed Haruhi staring at him yet, since he had stared at the girls before turning back to the hosts. When he did, she saw him tense, and he turned away. The boy was gone before she could even blink.

"Haruhi!" the twins whined, finally realizing she hadn't answered any of the questions they threw at her.

She looked up at them, "Huh?"

They sweat dropped, confirming what they had already guessed.

"Hey, Haruhi?" the first one asked. He had let go of her neck, but was still pretty close. She saw the right-sided part of his hair and knew he was Hikaru, the older one.

"Were you staring at Takahashi-kun?" Kaoru questioned after his brother.

"Takahashi-kun?" she repeated. At first, the name sounded like the first of another Host Club member, one she knew as Mori-sempai, but quickly added the extra 'ha' in the middle of the name.

Kaoru nodded. "The boy who was over there a second ago."

"Oh, you know him?"

Both brothers sighed, not believing they were actually hearing this. Opening their mouths to speak, they tried to explain, but were beaten to the punch. Kyoya, with his trusted notebook that just happened to be wherever he was, appeared in front of the three to do it himself.

"Takahashi, Rei. He is in his freshman year, in class 1-A, the same as yours and the twins. Takahashi-kun was born and raised in Kyoto, before moving in this area two and a half years ago. He made it into Ouran Academy on a scholarship much like yourself, and is currently living with his aunt. He is a commoner."

Haruhi sighed, hinting that was the end of that. She knew he probably had pages of unneeded and unimportant information that he didn't want to explain, and she was thankful for that.

"I don't remember him," she said, placing her finger to her chin in thought. Haruhi felt happy that another student made it into this school by brains and not by money and a little proud, too.

"He sits at the back of the class," one twin said. She wasn't looking, and wasn't really listening to determine the difference.

"Behind Hikaru,"

"Is always staring out the window,"

"And never wears the uniform!" they finished together.

She nodded, making a mental note to pay attention better the next day. Haruhi couldn't afford the uniform either, so she didn't blame him.

Despite all this information, her original uneasy feeling returned, and wondered if something bad was going to happen.

Haruhi's attention was dragged away by Tamaki yet again, mumbling something about reverting back. She sighed.

He was already giving her a headache.

* * *

So, there. My reeeeeally short introduction to a new story. I originally want to wait a while, but I just can't take it anymore. xP

R&R what you think so far, even though I don't think you'll get much out of this. The main point of this is to show the Host Club's view of Rei.


	2. A Hitachiin Conclusion!

**Tsunagaru: Chapter One**

**A Hitachiin Conclusion!**

Okay, here's the first actual chapter. It's longer, but not my longest. Don't worry, they will get longer. I just want this out! xP

I want to say thank you to **Kitsuneneko88 **for the review, and Isu-chan for the support. And for those who figure something out in this chapter, feel free to PM me. Tell me what you think it is, and we'll see if you're right or not!

R & R!!

* * *

I shook my head vigorously, trying to send my anger to the sidewalk instead of where I wanted it to go. My glare intensified, until my eyes began to hurt. I had to stop; I was far enough away from that school, so no one would notice me.

Sighing, I rubbed my eyes to stop them from watering. They always did that when I got mad, which happened a lot.

Okay, maybe not a lot. I was actually fine in my classes, since I just ignored everyone but the teacher. Hell, sometimes I even ignored _them_.

Once the blur was away from my eyes, I continued down the street. I let my mind wander as I turned a right, down a back alley to my apartment. Several more blocks, and I would finally be home. Home was my sanctuary compared to that hell palace behind me.

It didn't matter that no one was waiting for me.

I wondered if I had dozed off while walking back, since I didn't remember the apartment so close to Ouran. Looking at my watch, I realized it was still the same amount of time as it always was. Buildings don't just get up and move closer to each other to confuse people.

Well, who was I to judge the way things worked?

Trudging up the flight of stairs to the second floor, I brought out my little ring of keys to unlock the door I was headed for; 203. I lowered my hood, but shivered. Just because it was spring didn't mean it still didn't get cold sometimes. I finally reached my apartment door, (only stopping once to yawn, since doing both at the same time could put me in the hospital, knowing my pathetic brain) and shoved the blue dyed key in the keyhole. I stared at myself in the knocker's reflection, barely able to notice the blue-purple tint in my eyes.

It was when I went to open the door that I was barked at.

Wait, barked at?

I looked up, scanning my still unlocked door. When I was barked at again, I turned to my right, and smiled. The golden retriever wagged its tail when I saw him.

Kneeling on the balls of my feet and wrapping an arm around my knees, I used my free arm to pet him. He licked my hand.

"Hey, buddy," I whispered. Dogs had good hearing, so I knew he heard. He wasn't really a full grown dog, maybe about two years old. He didn't have a collar; I wondered if he was homeless. "I don't have much, but I'm sure I'll be able to find something for you to eat."

He barked again, wagging his tail to the fullest. Knowing my own situation, I figured I'd be able to take care of the dog for a while, until thinking of another way.

"I'll need to think of a name for you, too. What do you think?"

"Koromaru!"

The dogs' ears instantly perked up, and the wagging increased more, if that was possible. I stood and turned back behind me. A little girl, around eight or nine, was running up the stairs. Her cropped black hair bounced with her as she ran.

She came to a halt in front of me and the dog.

"Koro-chan!" the girl scolded. "I told you not to run off like that!"

"Is he your dog?" I asked, slightly hovering over her. Not that I could help it, the little girl only went up to my hip.

She turned from the dog, and quickly bowed to me. "Thank you so much for finding Koro-chan for me, sir! Mama would've been so mad if I had lost him."

"Y-yeah. Anytime; I'm glad you found him."

Waving the girl off, I frowned when she was out of sight. Who would've known even a little girl could be tricked so easily?

I sighed and finally stepped into my apartment. When the door clicked shut behind me, I slid down its surface and sat on the floor, hugging my knees. I should've known; of course the dog wasn't alone.

"How much longer can I do this, Akane?" I whispered to myself, not even wondering if she could hear me or not. Sighing, I rested my head in my arms.

I didn't need light to see how empty this place was.

-

Haruhi yawned. Her father had kept her up late last night, no matter what she had told him.

"Fujioka, Haruhi," the teacher called.

"Here," she called back.

She heard the teacher call several more names, then: "Hitachiin Hikaru, Hitachiin Kaoru."

"Hai!" They both answered.

Haruhi turned down to the paper on her desk as their teacher continued down the list. The previous night, she had stayed up late to finish it. She could blame her father for that; him and his 'father, daughter time' had gone on way too long. Haruhi knew the teacher wouldn't even check if it was done or ask the class to hand it in, but she didn't feel right when her work wasn't done. It was probably one of the reasons her marks had been so high, so she wasn't complaining.

"Takahashi, Rei." Haruhi perked up, listening. She remembered the previous day in an instance.

"Hai," she heard.

Turning slowly to not make it so obvious, she looked behind a very bored Hikaru, to the student sitting beside the window. She knew who it was the second she saw him.

Rei Takahashi was wearing the same style of clothes he was the day before; a long-sleeved thin shirt with a white short-sleeved hoodie overtop. His hood was pulled up as he stared out the window, resting his head in his palm. He was fiddling with a pencil in his free hand, ignoring everything around him. She saw the papers on his desk, and figured they were doing the same thing.

Haruhi turned to the front once the teacher called attention. Even though she listened to his lecture, part of her mind began to wander.

Would that old man ever get interesting?

I sighed, sensing the other students moving around me, chatting amongst each other as they went for lunch. Sighing, I slid my papers into my school bag. I wondered when there would be a day the old man wouldn't give us work, or if the 'rich' students even did any of it. Oh well, at least the weather sympathized with me; it was obviously going to rain later.

"Takahashi-kun?"

I flinched, glancing upwards through my bangs. If it was one of those annoying girls, it wouldn't be that hard to get away. It was usually them who bothered me during the small breaks. Shockingly enough, there was only one place in the whole school that I could be alone. Yeah, I know, insane right? This place is _huge_!

"Hai, Fujioka-kun?"

What Haruhi Fujioka wanted with me, I had no idea. It's not that I had anything against the brown haired boy personally, considering we were in the same situation. And usually, wherever _he_ was, _they _weren't too far away.

"You normally eat alone, don't you?" he asked. "I was wondering if you'd like to join us for lunch."

_No way in hell _is what I wanted to say, but come on, I'm not that mean.

Sighing, I brought my briefcase-like schoolbag around my shoulder and walked around him. "Sorry, Fujioka-kun, but not today."

Part of me felt bad for doing that to Fujioka; I had almost gone back, but bumping into the twins on the way out made me forget.

I sighed, taking another bite of my half eaten rice ball. What I found sad was the fact that I wasn't even that hungry, but not eating wouldn't be good either. Eating something would also probably make me tired, which meant I'd be napping through the afternoon. It amazed me how my brain could still gain all the information from a lesson even if I slept through it, yet I can't drink coffee and walk at the same time.

I shivered when a cool breeze passed through my hair and traveled down my back; it was definitely going to rain later. Good thing I closed my window this morning, or my clothes for tomorrow – and my Mokona plushie – would end up soaked. I probably felt the cold more than the people in the courtyard below me, who were just starting for their classes.

I heard the first bell ring, and shoved the last of my onigiri in my mouth.

Sighing again, I admitted to myself that I didn't really want to leave my seat on the roof. It was the only place that other students didn't bother me.

The only other person who I'd ever met up there was one of the school cleaners. He'd come up from time to time, and we'd talk throughout lunch. Sanada-san was an interesting person to listen to, since he had a lot of stories to tell for a man in his fifties. But today, it was just me, and even though normally it didn't bother me, today I just had this strange feeling.

Like something bad was going to happen, and I didn't like it.

"My Lord! My Lord!"

Tamaki, who had been in the middle of a rage for the lact of twins, spun around and pointed to the door that had just flung open. The rest of the club looked up, since they had been listening to his tantrum. Actually, they were missing a certain brown haired host as well.

"You hooligans!" he shouted, acting like one of those old men trying to shoo teenagers off of his lawn. "How dare you be late for our meeting? And where is my darling Haruhi?!"

Even as the twins were catching their breaths, they still managed to have one of their dramatic worried poses, running together up to the Host Club King.

"That's just it, Milord!" one cried.

"We've got a problem!"

Kyoya pushed up his glasses with his index finger. "What are the two of you talking about?"

"Haruhi likes Takahashi!" they shouted.

And of course, we can all guess the reaction from a certain blond. But just in case you can't…..

"WHAT?!"

* * *

Hahahaha, cliffhanger! xP


	3. Rei

**Tsunagaru: Chapter Two**

**Rei's Biggest Secret**

Here's the second chapter. About halfway through writing this I got so braindead. I blame the people on the Third Music Room Forum for constantly sidetracking me.

-shakes fist-

Anyways, speaking of them, I want to thank Isu-chan (again),** Princess Zathura**, **ArtemisBlack555**, **goodnightXandXgoodbye** and **Ninja Lord Madura** for helping me without knowing it. xP

R & R!!

* * *

I sneezed, causing the students in the hall to stare; why did it feel like someone was talking about me?

"Milord! Put Kaoru down!" Hikaru panicked, watching their blond king strangle his brother after they made a comment. It had been a while since the club had seen Tamaki _that _angry.

But, in one of his sudden mood changes, Tamaki ended up sulking in the corner. Hikaru ran up and hugged his brother, who was just confused.

Kyoya sighed, adjusting his glasses. "Why do you two assume that Haruhi likes Takahashi?"

The twins fixed themselves and went back into their alarmed state.

"Yesterday, she was staring at him when he went by the club!"

"And she kept asking questions about him!"

Near the back of the room, third years Mitsukuni Haninozuka and Takashi Morinozuka watched the group in three in their panic. The smallest, Hunny, looked up to his tall cousin and tilted his head.

"Ne, ne, Takashi! Didn't Kyo-chan, Hika-chan and Kao-chan talk about Rei-chan?"

Mori nodded. "Un."

Hikaru and Kaoru, who had no idea that the older students were even talking, continued to explain. "Today, she kept looking at him in class! And even asked him to come to lunch with us!"

"This is bad, Milord!"

Kyoya sighed, making a note on his book. "The two of you might be over doing this a little."

"No, Kyoya!" the rest of the club looked up to the quickly recovered King, who stood in his typically overacted Prince like pose. "We must act! I cannot let my darling Haruhi's heart be stolen away by such a ruffian!"

Turning to each other, the twins raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, Milord?"

"Our plan shall commence right away! Operation: Save Haruhi! We will save her from the commoner Rei Takahashi!"

For the third time that day, I sneezed, almost falling off my chair. At least everyone didn't look at me that time.

I wondered who, of all the students here, could be talking about _me._ Sure, they did when I first came, a commoner who managed to make it to one of the best and richest schools on a scholarship, but they talked about Fujioka too. At first, I was actually happy not to be the only one, until I realized just _who_ had managed to steal him away. Oh well; school was supposed to be for learning, not for socializing with non-existent friends.

Not that any normal teenager really believed that.

Sighing, I turned away from the window to watch the class. Our teacher, like usual, was late. He probably wasn't even going to come at all. These were the classes where all the students just talked to each other, and the fact that we wouldn't even get a substitute pissed me off. These rich people had it so easy.

I flinched, quickly turning back out the window.

Why the hell were the twins staring at me? No, scratch that, they were _glaring._ The two of them were pretending to listen to Fujioka, who was explaining something about the work we had been given to do, but their heads were tilted in my direction.

Sure, those two had been in my class since the beginning, and I've bumped into them from time-to-time, but they've never actually looked at me. It was creeping me out.

The bell went; Freedom!

In a rush, I gathered all my things without bothering to put it in my bag; my goal was to get away from here as soon as possible. If I waited for the rest of the class, there was a chance I'd never get out, and I didn't really want to have those two stare at me all day…

By the way, have I mentioned how unlucky I am?

My body collided with another person, and my books fell to the floor. I cursed to myself, knowing right away who I'd bumped into. How he, or his brother, made it out of the class before me was a miracle.

"Sorry," I muttered, reaching down and scooping them up quickly. There were other people in the hall, and they were already staring. Attention was what I _wasn't _going for, and this wasn't helping.

When I tried to walk by them, one grabbed my arm and spun me around. I managed to keep the books in my hands. I was sure everyone was staring at us now.

"You bump into my brother, and call that an apology?" the one holding me questioned. I refused to look up to them, even through my hair. Here, of all places, was where I could not get angry.

"Hikaru, don't worry," the other one pleaded. I saw him tug on his brother's arm.

"Yes, actually," I snapped back, tearing my arm away.

"Are Takahashi-kun and Hitachiin-kun going to fight?" a girl from the crowd asked. Several others began to follow suit.

I bit my lower lip; this wasn't going good. I knew my anger wasn't helping, but I couldn't help it. These two, as it seemed, ran out ahead of me just so I'd bump into Kaoru Hitachiin on purpose. If they had really been out in a hurry, they wouldn't have stopped enough for me _to_ bump into them.

Without looking back, I ran through the crowd, ignoring the gasps of students behind me. It didn't even occur to me that I was running in the opposite direction as home.

"Wait!" Hikaru yelled after me. Oh great.

This meant they were going to chase me; just what I needed. I just wished I knew what the heck those two wanted; if they had asked instead of making such a fuss, I probably would've answered. Not run away because I was afraid of hurting them.

I stopped after running around for five minutes to catch my breath. Using the wall for support, I quickly shoved my stuff in my bag. Once I lost them, I'd run straight to the gates and head for home. Rich people like them wouldn't dare come into a neighbourhood like mine.

"Where is he?" echoed through the empty, large hallway. "Damn, he's fast!"

I froze; opening the nearest door in my lame excuse to get away from the two. It clicked behind me as I backed away. I was going to have to find a place to hide in the large room.

Now, knowing how unlucky I am, how many of you can guess where I ended up?

"Welcome!"

My body went rigid; I turned in horror. Five boys were in the middle of the room, each dressed in the familiar Ouran uniform. I recognized them at once, and swore.

"Takahashi-kun?" Haruhi questioned.

I spun around to get out of the door, which flung open the second I did. I dropped my bag, the twins pointed at me.

"We finally caught you!"

Slowly, I took a step back, but realized how trapped I really was. There wasn't really anywhere to go. Except, that door in the far left, which might not lead anywhere, but it was my best bet. I sprinted for it…

But didn't make it anywhere.

The twins had tried to stop me from going anywhere by the one grabbing my collar, but he missed and grabbed my hair instead. With the sudden movement, my feet slipped, and I fell. Instead of him falling with me, like gravity should have done, my well hidden hair clip stayed in his hands. Since I failed to bring out my hands to shield myself, the side of my face collided with the pavement. It hurt like _hell_, by the way.

Sitting up, I rubbed my cheek in pain, not even noticing the extra growth of hair. I heard someone run up to me, and saw it was Haruhi. Not that I was really looking, since I was glaring at the twin, whom I figured was Hikaru. The face he was giving me showed how obviously shocked he was, but it still didn't register in my mind. The pain made it hard for anything to even go through my mind.

"Hey, Takahashi-san?" Haruhi questioned, kneeling beside me. "Are you a girl?"

I swear, you could probably cut the tension with a knife…

Looking at her, I felt my eyes widen in shock. Even if my hair was down, I should still look a little guy like. I didn't exactly remember when my hood fell down, and my left cheek was red. Maybe it was the look I had given the twin that gave me away.

Or maybe it was the fact that she and I were exactly the same.

Frowning, I turned away, but forced myself to nod anyways. The two twins gasped, and the blonde started to panic about something. The black haired one with glasses had been shocked too, it seemed, but was now writing frantically on his notepad.

"You're a… girl?" the closest twin gasped for the third time.

"Why didn't you tell me you're a girl?!" the blonde shouted.

"Because I don't even know you!" I snapped back.

Actually, even though I have never spoken to any of them, I knew who they all were. How could someone go to Ouran Academy and _not_ know the host club?

It hit me then, and froze me as if I had been thrown into a wall. I swallowed the vile gathering in my throat, my nails dug into my skin. I was afraid; these total strangers now knew my secret, what was I going to do? Would I have to run again?

"We won't tell anyone," Haruhi told me, wearing a smile.

My teeth clenched tight; how could this person say that with such a face? There was no way someone could just make a promise as big as that for other people, unless…

"Haruhi is right," the one with glasses sighed. "We have no reason to tell your secret. But, you've also caused us quite a ruckus, and knowing about our Haruhi isn't good either."

"What?!" the blond freaked. Haruhi helped me stand, and I raised an eyebrow.

"It's kind of obvious, you know." I muttered, glaring at the two twins. Haruhi laughed nervously, and I turned to the other boys. What made me think I was getting away with nothing? "You're going to want something, aren't you?"

The black haired boy pushed up his glasses, making another note in his notebook. "Of course; it only makes sense that you'd make up the time you're little stunt has delayed us. Also, you are going to need to be nearby if I'm keeping an eye on you, so you don't leak our secret out to the rest of the school, in exchange for the same thing from us."

So basically, this guy was bribing me to work for the Host Club, and I didn't have a choice. Sighing and pulling my hair back under the shorter layer, after snatching my hair clip back from twin one, I admitted defeat. "Fine, I'll do it."

"Ne, Rei-chan? Are you gonna be at the club a lot now?"

I looked down, to the little bunny holding, blond haired boy at my feet. Actually, he went up to my midriff. I wasn't one of the tallest people in the world, even though I was taller than Haruhi. My height was probably between her and the twins.

Nodding, I answered him. Anyone who could be mean to that face probably didn't have a heart. "I guess so, Sempai…

"It's settled then," the black haired one said firmly, snapping his book shut. Everyone in the room turned to him. "From this moment on, you will work as the Host Club's --"

"Host!!"

While the twins started panicking and the other boy was back to writing things down, the one who I actually knew as Tamaki continued to explain to them. I was positive, at that time, the full meaning of his words hadn't really registered in my mind.

"Sempai! Is this really such a good idea?"

"Hikaru, Kaoru! Go get one of the spare uniforms! Kyoya, book a hair appointment!"

I spent about two minutes watching the twins dash around, and listening to the other host members. Mostly, it was all just a big blur, and I was standing there with a dumbfounded look on my face. Until, at least, the twins shoved a bag into my hand and something clicked in for the second time that day. I wondered if my brain was just being incredibly slow that day….

"What?!" I cried. Well, I believe it was more along the lines of screaming. "No way in hell! Glasses there was going to say dog or servant or something, not _Host_! There's no way I'm going to do that!!"

Glasses, who had been on the phone so I figured he was Kyoya, pushed his glasses back up his nose. "I'm afraid Tamaki is the leader of this club, so what he says goes."

And if what he says goes, then I had to listen, because my secret depended on it. But I didn't exactly find making other girls swoon over me exciting, you see.

I could see the light blue of Ouran Academy's male uniform deep inside the bag, and wondered if becoming a Host would actually help hide the fact I was a girl. If Haruhi could do it, why couldn't I?

Snapping back to the blond, I pointed at him with my free hand. "Fine, but only because you cannot tell anyone of my secret! I, Reina Takahashi -" I saw Kyoya write that down "- will become a Host! And I'll do it _without_ your fancy, expensive haircuts!"

And with that, I spun around and stormed out of the room, not even looking back once.

"Tono!" The twins' whined.

The Host Club had just ended, two hours after the little delay. They were finishing up, but Haruhi was really the only one who was actually cleaning. Well, except Hunny, whose job was to eat the leftover cakes.

"You can't go around making random students hosts, you know." Kaoru continued, since his brother seemed a little off their brainwave. He knew Hikaru had been like that since discovering Rei's secret, but he was getting over it.

Kyoya wasn't listening to them at that moment, just typing away at his computer.

"How could I just force her into slavery after finding out she was going through such length to hide her gender!" Tamaki dramatically explained to them.

Haruhi sighed, placing several dirty tea cups onto a tray; she was already feeling bad for her fellow cross dresser, even though she didn't know Rei's true reason for doing it.

When Haruhi walked out of sight and into the kitchen, Kyoya slightly looked up from his computer. "Tamaki, what is your _real _reason for making Reina a host?"

Tamaki, who was magically surrounded by a mast amount of red roses, sighed dreamily and placed his hands on his cheeks. "Isn't it obvious? If Rei-chan joins the club and becomes a Host, my daughter will have a girl friend without revealing her true identity!"

Kyoya sighed; it all made sense.

Hikaru and Kaoru turned to each other when Tamaki continued his dramatic explanation in the background.

"Why is someone like her trying to hide her gender so much?" Hikaru questioned.

Kaoru nodded. "And why does she hate this place so much?"

They pondered that thought, before coming to the same decision, linking together their fingers and smiling at each other, they answered:

"She'll make an interesting new toy!"

* * *

So... the twins have a plan. That's all I really have to say here. -cackles evily-


	4. Her First Day

**Tsunagaru: Chapter Three**

**Her First Day**

**Akane: Hey everyone! Here's the next chapter, sorry it took so long to write! Schools back now... :(**

**Isu-chan: -smacks Akane- How many times do we have to tell you to so a disclaimer!**

**Akane: I don't own OHSHC, just Rei and the small bit of story around her! Don't hit me!**

**Isu-chan: ... good enough! :D**

**And thanks to kuro.shi.ame for pointing out I kept spelling senpai wrong. My bad! What drugs am I on, I wonder. :P**

**Anyways, R&R!  
**

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She could tell that the twins were getting more and more annoyed as the day went on.

And of course, when the twins were annoyed, things didn't go so well for Haruhi. Every five minutes, they'd throw a crumbled piece of paper at the back of her head, and she'd try to ignore it. The Hitachiin twins were not so easy to ignore, you see.

The two of them had been pestering her all day about what she thought about Rei Takahashi, and where she thought their classmate was. Rei hadn't shown up at all that day; the two were constantly changing their theories of why and making sure they told her.

If _they_ were this bad, she was a little afraid of the reaction at the club…

-

I hated that instead of trying to get away from school, like normal people, I was trying to get _into_ it. The people crowding around and staring at me as I past didn't help either. It was weird knowing that I was both helping _and_ risking my secret at the same time.

-

"Where is she? Her first day and she's already late!"

Haruhi sighed; she knew that was coming.

"Tono," one twin whined. Their mood seemed to have changed the instant they stepped inside the club. "Takahashi hasn't been here all day, I doubt she's gonna come at all."

"I have yet to hear of a transfer," Kyoya told them, still typing away at his computer in the corner. "And she's a smart girl; she knows running isn't her best option."

"Ne, Takashi?" Hunny asked, looking up to his cousin. A large assortment of cakes was laid out on the table before them. "Is Rei-chan not going to come today? I wanted to share cake with her…."

"How could she not be here?!" Tamaki continued to shout, waving his arms around like the lunatic he was. The medium size, expensive looking shopping bag in his hands threatened to snap. "And after I went through all the trouble of getting her this outfit!!"

"_We_ got it, Milord!" the twins snapped together.

"Oh, don't have a cow."

Haruhi and the Host Club turned to the door, which had just closed with a click. Standing in front of it was someone she almost didn't recognize, but quickly recovered.

Rei was wearing the familiar Ouran uniform, her hair was still short, and her bag was slung over her shoulder. A silver ear cuff was placed on her right earlobe; she wondered if it had always been there, or she just didn't see it. Even though Haruhi knew Rei and her were both girls, she found it amazing how easily Rei could look completely male.

-

Sighing, I dropped my bag at my feet. I still didn't know why I brought it with me; I hadn't even gone to school that day. Part of me wished I could have just stayed at home.

"Reina!" The blonde cried. "Thank goodness you're here!!"

Then, Tamaki Suoh jumped at me. Having no idea what he actually was trying to do, I stepped out of the way. I thought he was smart enough to stop himself, but man, was I wrong.

The idiot fell face first into the wall behind me; I gave him the first 'are-you-really-that-stupid' look that I'd given in a very _long _time. The twins laughed as he tried to recover, crying something about not being loved.

I sighed again, turning to the see one of the members walking towards me. Kyoya raised a shopping bag in front of him; I wondered how he even managed to get it away from the blonde in the first place. "This is your costume for today."

With an eyebrow raised, I took the bag from him and peeked inside. "You've got to be kidding me; I'm not gonna wear this!"

"You're still new to the customers, so this is the only way you'll be recognized as a Host until you have designators."

"But, didn't Haruhi –"

"Haruhi's circumstances were different."

"Right….."

"Doesn't anyone care about my feelings?!" The blonde shouted. Everyone turned back to him, seeing how he was crying and panicking.

"Did you really want me to answer that, Senpai?" I questioned him.

Reminder number one: this guy goes into a corner _way_ too easily.

-

"Kaoru! Don't cry!" he called out.

His brother, the boy to his right of the table, turned away. "But Hikaru, you got so focused in telling that story! It felt like I wasn't here anymore!"

Of course, Hikaru wouldn't take that.

"Kaoru!" he cried out again, taking his brother by the face and forcing him to turn. The female designators nearby all turned to watch the scene and swooned. "Don't you ever say that again! You know….. You know this world would mean nothing to me without you!"

"Hikaru!"

Like they always did whenever the twins acted on 'Brotherly Love' the girls screamed in delight. Once things settled down, they asked the girls if they wanted more tea. One of the girls turned away, distracted by something else.

"Hikaru-san," she asked, gaining both of the boys' attention. "Who is that?"

Everyone sitting at that table followed the girl's gaze, seeing a black haired waiter serving tea to one of the customers. She was smiling up at him, and to the twin's amazement, he was smiling back.

"Ah," Hikaru sighed. He was annoyed that he was getting the attention of their customer's.

"That's Rei-san." His brother explained. A couple of the girl's gasped. "Tamaki-sama approached him yesterday and asked him to join the Host Club."

"Rei-san? As in Takahashi-kun?"

"He's so cute! Especially in that outfit!" one giggled. The girl beside her nodded.

"He's always wearing those strange clothing, he's so much cuter when you see his face!"

"And his smile is amazing!"

The girl's didn't even realize that Kaoru was trying to stop his brother from resorting to murder.

-

I hated the fact that all of these girls were staring at me, talking and giggling too. When I offered the one tea, her face got all red and she stuttered. It was kind of cute, but it was hard for my brain to register that all of them thought I was male. While changing into the waiter outfit, I looked at myself in the mirror and realized how much I really did look like a boy.

Kyoya had explained that being a waiter and serving the customers would be the ideal way to be noticed until I had some designators of my own. Tamaki had spent around ten minutes talking about how 'adorable' I looked in it, and it was a good thing I spent that time learning about the desserts from Haruhi, or I probably would have hit him.

Several times.

After offering another girl some tea, one of Haruhi's customer's, Honey jumped at me from behind. I managed to catch my balance on time, so I didn't fall on the poor girls in front of me. The small boy wrapped his arms and legs around my body before laughing; the girls giggled.

"Ne, Rei-chan! Won't you come eat cake with Takashi and me?"

I gave him a questioning look, but noted the girls didn't find anything strange about my honorific. Since he was so small and cute, I figured he did that to everyone.

"Honey-senpai, tea doesn't serve itself." I explained to him, smiling gently. For some reason the girl's were sad; but not as sad as I had made Honey. "Okay, okay. But only for a while, alright?"

Honey cheered, jumping off my back and dragging me to his and Mori's table. Before I knew it, I was sitting beside him and almost having a conversation with their customers.

It was more a conversation on the girl's part, since I just answered as many questions as they threw at me. Mori was keeping an eye on both Honey and me from his right, not saying a word. Honey was on his fourth piece of cake.

Reminder number two: that little boy can stomach a _lot_ of cake.

I heard a crash.

"Mitsukuni!" Mori called out, and the girls gasped; I heard Honey's own little gasp of pain. The fact that I beat Mori surprised me.

"Be more careful next time, Senpai. You need to watch out for these things." I scolded him, placing his damaged finger in my mouth. The flow of blood wasn't that deep.

The chipped plate on the floor hadn't cracked, but its contents had scatted everywhere. His finger must've caught the chipped part, and it scared him; dropping the plate caused his cut. I happened to be a little closer to the injured hand then the older black-haired student beside me.

Honey blinked, some of his tears fell down his cheeks. Mori was in a silent shock, I saw, and the girl's were holding their breath.

I pulled out his finger and examined the wound. "It's not that deep; the blood has stopped." Reaching into my pocket, I brought out an object which I wrapped around his finger.

"Honey-senpai, are you alright?" one of the girls asked.

He blinked at his finger again, before smiling, the rest of his trapped tears were gone. "Look, look, Takashi! Usa-chan's on my band aid!"

I smiled; wondering why little children always brought out the mother in me. Even though this certain one was actually older then me…

"Rei-kun? Do you always carry band-aids around with you?"

Looking up to the girl who asked me, I nodded. "Where I live, the neighbourhood children are always running around and getting themselves hurt." This gained their attention. I used that to my advantage, acting as if I was staring off into a far off place. "I… I just can't help but being a little over-protective."

Okay, so it wasn't completely a lie, just exaggerated a bit. It definitely won the girl's hearts over though.

"Rei-kun, can I designate you tomorrow?"

"Hai, me too!"

I shook my head, "I don't want to take you away from Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai; it wouldn't feel right."

Beside me, the small boy lost his attention on his finger and giggled, smiling at me again. "It's alright with me, Rei-chan! As long as you promise to come eat cake with us more!"

He brought out the pinky of his uninjured hand; I chuckled softly and linked mine with his. Would you say no to that adorable face?

"Promise."

-

Once the customers were gone, to my horror, I was ambushed.

"Reina!" Tamaki sang, forcing me into an embrace. For such a skinny blonde, he had a _really_ tight grip; I couldn't push him off. "Oh, you were wonderful out there! You and Haruhi are such naturals!" Spinning me around in circles didn't help very much either.

"P-put me down!" I snapped.

"They were definitely accepting you; you have four designators for tomorrow already." I heard Kyoya explain. There were only the small flashes I could see of him. The twins were off in one of the corners. Hunny and Mori we off somewhere too, and I remembered seeing the cake tray...

"Well of course they were accepting her! Look how handsome she looks! Kawaii!!"

I pushed away from him, quickly hiding behind who seemed to be my only ally: Haruhi. "How the hell can someone be both handsome _and_ kawaii?"

He froze, bringing his hand under his chin in thought. "Hmm… be so handsome, it's cute? Yeah, that's it!"

Haruhi sighed when he tried to hug me again, not being able to get around her and to me at the same time. I was counting on that; this guy was seriously beginning to freak me out.

I just wanted to go home, not run away from some psychopath that insisted on hugging me.

"Oh, you just are so adorable!" he cried out again, managing to grab my arm by pretending to go in the opposite direction. "So much, I could almost adopt you!"

Adopt me? What in the world that meant, I didn't want to know. The look on his face told me I probably didn't. Tamaki gasped. "In fact, I will! Haruhi!" He reached out for her, taking herhand in his and laughed. "Isn't this amazing? You have a new sister! Daddy's so happy!"

"Senpai…"

"What the hell?! You're not my father!!"

"Don't talk to Daddy that way!"

"What did I just tell you!!"

Before I had realised what was happening, not only was I sucked into the group known as the Host Club, but the sun had already begun to set; my first day in their club was almost over.

And yet, the whole time, I kept thinking, _hey, it could be worse.  
_

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**Thanks so much for reading! :D**


	5. Headache

**Tsunagaru: Chapter Four**

**Headache**

**Akane: Weeeell, I'm back! And to make up for my writing absence, I have a really long chapter here for you. It was originally supposed to be a lot longer, but I split it so I could post this already. :D**

***Note: The **_**she**_** mentioned in the start (italics) and the **_**she**_** at the beginning of the story part are two different people. Isu-chan thought I should point that out. **

**Azami: …. Disclaimer? -_-**

**Akane: Oh, right! Well, for this really long chapter and the ones to come, I'm going to have a friend come on and do the disclaimer! ^_^ Here's Princess Zathura!**

**PZ: ****This totally awesome series, Ouran High School Host Club (which was, in my opinion, completely ruined by the dub) does not in any way, shape, or form belong to Akane-senpai. She, on the other hand, belongs to it... Oh, and Akane-senpai DOES own her OC Rei and her side of the plot. :D Was that okay?**

**Goodnight&Goodbye: I hate it... you forgot pie...**

**PZ: Fine, add Mayu asking for pie then, that makes everyone happy.**

**Mayu: Pie!! :D**

**G&G: Yaaay!**

**Akane: …… anyways, don't forget to R&R! **

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_It was dark._

_The rain splashed against my face as I ran; the only thing that kept me going was the back of my ally ahead of me. _That_ person was who I needed to protect from the stalking predator behind us. _

_But neither of us could run anymore._

_I watched her collapse beside a tree, balancing her body against it. The both of us breathing deeply to catch our lost breath, even though I doubted we'd make it away now._

"_There's no use in running."_

_My body tightened, turning slowly to see our chasers, and instantly I stood between them and her. _She _wouldn't be hurt._

-

**Two Days Earlier**

The dream I was having kept pushing me off the edge of reality, over and over. Something as simple as a building would morph into some evil and menacing. When I regained my sense from the newest dream, I pondered the meaning of them all. Of the shapes and the colours; the faces. One thing I knew for sure, _her_ face would always start them off.

"Rei-san?"

"Do you really think it's such a good idea to wake him?"

"The other hosts have started entertaining already…."

"Yes, but I think it's worth seeing how peaceful he sleeps!"

I felt my eyes twitch open to their voices, focusing in on them as their faces turned red. The three uttered out an apology at once.

Smiling, I straightened myself out of my sleeping position on the windowsill. "Ah, gomenasai; I didn't mean to fall asleep on you…. I haven't made you sad, have I?"

Again, with their cute red faces, they managed to tell me how they were sorry for waking me, but enjoyed watching me sleep.

This was my third day as a Host with my own customers. I was getting used to the mannerisms; the right way to make them laugh and smile. It was nice seeing that, even if it was for such a complicated reason. Haruhi had explained to me that she felt the same, and that was part of the reason she stayed as a host.

Still being Tamaki's 'daughter' was another thing that Haruhi had tried to explain to me. Kyoya was happy with my progress, and I spent most of my spare time in the club room with Hunny and Mori. Not that Kyoya left me with a lot of spare time in the first place…

I avoided the twins like the plague outside the club, and most of our time in it as well. They had already tired me with their constant questions and pranks. I had managed to miss all of them so far, shockingly enough.

Today was when the Hosts were to offer their best wishes to the designators for the New Year, which the club was celebrating by wearing fancy kimonos and decorating the room with more flowers then usual. The scene might have been amazing if I was a passerby, but knowing how rich these people were, it just annoyed me. Kyoya didn't help when he told Haruhi and I to remember we rented the kimonos we were wearing.

My kimono was mostly dark red and black, with beautifully sewn butterflies on the whole thing. It looked manlier than Haruhi's though, which made her appear more feminine than normal. The girls had noticed that too, but didn't think of it the same, since she was already a boy in their minds. I had been worried that mine would do the same, but it managed to do the opposite of hers. The customers were quite fond of it.

"Kyoya-sama!" a girl called out while I lead my designators to our area.

"Is the new photo collection for the host club not coming out yet?" her friend questioned afterwards. My own girls turned to listen; they had been excited about that too.

Kyoya turned to them and gave one of his fake business smiles. "Unfortunately, there are no plans for that at this moment."

All the nearby girls turned and talked to each other, saying how much they wanted one. I heard my name, but chose to ignore the rest and sighed.

"Isn't this club getting filthy rich," started one of the twins, who were suddenly behind me. It was amusing how you could clearly see Kyoya's eyes when the customers talked to him, but the instant a host member said a word, his glasses glinted and hid them.

The other twin finished, "From our merchandise?"

I turned away from them too, bored already with the talk of money. No matter how hard I thought of it, I couldn't understand why such _rich_ people needed money for a Club created inside a school for _rich _kids, and was run by a bunch of _rich _students.

"Rei-chan! Haru-chan!"

I turned towards the voice the same time Haruhi did on the other side of the room. Our eyes met for a second, before both going to Hunny's side. The boy was crying, rubbing one of his eyes with the sleeve of his kimono that was just a little too big.

"I lost one of my zouri," he cried. Two of the girl's, Haruhi's customers, watched as she comforted him.

Zouri were traditional Japanese straw sandals that each of the hosts was wearing with their kimonos. I had worn zouri as a child and was used to them, but I had to show Haruhi how to walk with them in the beginning.

"Weren't you wearing them just now?" she asked him.

Watched Mori approach them, I quickly realized this was another trick to make the girls swoon, even knowing that he was actually that over-protective. There were some things that I had still to get used to, like Tamaki's flirting and Mori's relationship with the young looking senior. The twins' act was the only one I couldn't bare to watch, even now.

"Here, Haruhi; I'll give this to you."

One of the twins – I didn't really care enough to pay attention to whom – handed Haruhi a small transparent container with a fancy desert inside. She looked from the small box back up to the twins.

"You're giving this to me?"

The girls crowded. "Haruhi-kun, you like Japanese sweets?"

"No, not sweet things in general," Haruhi looked at the container in her hands again. "But I think it would be a great thing to offer my mother."

That end bit caught my attention, made me think more about the meaning. Tamaki was oblivious to it, trying to give her more then one of the sweets. The others weren't watching or, in the twin's case, looking for more of the sweets to give her. Sighing, for what felt like the hundredth time that day, I turned away again.

When my eyes caught the ones of the girl at the doorway, she shrunk away, hiding her face. I raised an eyebrow and stepped forward. The others noticed my movement and followed my gaze.

"Oh? Aren't you a new face, humbled guest?" As Tamaki approached her, I looked around.

Was it only my imagination, or did all the girls who were just in the room disappear?

"What's wrong?" Hikaru asked. I noticed that the twins had reached the girl before Tamaki did, both of them offering her roses. "Come on in."

"Just watching is boring," his brother continued.

The girl stepped back. They were coming on too strong and I knew it. "Guys, leave her alone."

"Now there," Tamaki announced, "I've always told you to be courteous to first timers." He lifted her chin with his finger. I wandered around the group to stop him before things went too far. "Come, do not be afraid, _princess._"

"Senpai?" I rested a hand on his shoulder. "That's not such a good --"

"NO!" The girl screamed, suddenly thrusting her hands out in front of her. "Don't touch me, you phony!"

Her push sent Tamaki flying threw the air, landing on the floor near the other hosts. I blinked; my hand still up. With help from the twins, he managed to stand again.

"Me… a phony?"

"Yes, you're a phony!" She pointed at him, the look on her face showing complete anger. She wasn't standing that far from me, less then a metre, and I could just sense the emotion emitting from her. "I won't believe that you are the prince of this club!"

In any other situation, I would've have burst into laughter at Tamaki's shook, but I was just amazed at this new girl's energy.

"A prince character does not spread his love around so easily! Why do you act so much like a fool?!" As the insults continued, it appeared as if the only ones who cared were Haruhi and Honey. I had the same look as the twins; the three of us couldn't care less. "It's like you're just a dumb narcissist!"

I sighed. I could already tell this was going to be a headache and a half. "Hime-chan, please calm down." She looked at me, but I couldn't read her expression.

Kyoya, who had yet to say a word, lifted his hand to his chin and thought for a second. "Could you… be…"

She turned away from me and towards him. In an instant, her mood changed, and the girl clutched on to the front of his kimono.

"Kyoya-sama!" she cried out. "I wanted to see you, so dearly! The prince just for me!

-

"You're his fiancé?" I asked her.

"Hai!"

When I turned to look at the other's reactions, I realized that none of them had even dared to sit anywhere near her. Earlier, when no one did anything, I had offered her a seat on one of the couches and sat beside her.

"My name is Hoshakuji Renge. I shall be transferring into Class 1-A starting tomorrow."

"Oh? I'm in that class as well, so it's a pleasure to meet you."

"You as well, Rei-san!"

Somewhere in the short time we met, she learned my name… but after knowing Kyoya for a while, I didn't doubt much anymore.

Tamaki sulking in the corner – with everyone watching- didn't surprise me either.

"See? He's angry." One of the twins sighed.

"Because Mommy hid a secret from Daddy," the other one agreed.

"Whatever you say, but do you _really_ plan on having that husband and wife setting established?"

Chuckling slightly, I went back to ask Renge a question. "How did you and Kyoya-senpai meet anyway?"

"It was quite the love at first sight experience!" She closed her eyes and rested her hands on her cheeks like most of the Club's customers did whenever we did something they liked. "Like how he gently reached out his hand to the injured little kitty, and showed loving affection to flowers in the backyard that no one would look at…"

While the twins started freaking out and wondering what was going on, I froze. The others looked confused, while the dark-haired shadow king just stood there.

Kyoya had enough time to look at flowers? Kyoya actually _**liked**_ flowers?

Were we even talking about the same guy?

"Did you take him for the wrong person?" Haruhi asked, mouthing my thoughts.

"No! I cannot be wrong! A person that is so nice to others and never asks for anything in return! A person who loves solidarity, but who's really a loner!"

Or maybe something was just wrong with her eyes; that was definitely not the same Kyoya I knew, who would leech anything for the club. The loner part was a possibility, just not the part about him 'loving solidarity'. I opened my mouth to interrupt her, but didn't even get a sound out. Hunny clutched to my shirt and started bombarding me with questions I had no answer for. The twins running around screaming, 'Who? Who?' didn't help at all.

They acted if I wasn't confused myself.

"From the love simulation game that makes your heart throb, Ukidoki Memorial, Ichijo Miyabi; you look just like him!!"

Oh god, she was one of _them._

"Ukidoki…" I mumbled, sighing into my hands. While the others remained frozen for a few short moments, I raised an eyebrow and stared at Kyoya. "Well, I guess he does look like him…"

"Otaku!" I heard Tamaki shout, sending the twins back into their 'panicked' state.

"She's an Otaku!" Hikaru gasped, his brother finishing with: "This is the first time I've seen one!"

What the hell was I? But as I thought that, I realized they didn't know about my little obsession; In fact, they didn't even know that much about my home life in general. I was doing a good job at keeping it a secret, and was planning to keep it like that for a while. Especially if they thought all Otaku's were physco nuts like Renge. Sure, we were all a little insane when it came to our favourite past-time…

After a couple more shocked comments from the twins, I snapped, "Would you stop treating Otaku's like they're another species?!" They both stopped and stared at me, and I realized my mistake.

There went that plan; they were never going to let me live this down.

-

So, to my annoyance, we finally discovered that the two of them weren't really engaged, and that they had never even met.

When everyone was calm again, we managed to get Renge to sit back on the couch, but I didn't sit beside her again. Instead, Kyoya shared the couch with her, Tamaki, Haruhi, Hunny, and Mori standing behind them. The two red-heads grabbed me and forced me in the middle of a twin-sandwich before I could go anywhere, their arms intertwined with my own, and their heads on my shoulders. They would've been dead a long time ago if I was able to move…

"According to my reports Kyoya-sama, you manage every aspect of this club, right?" Renge asked. The sparkle in her eyes really freaked me out.

"That's right!" Hunny chirped in. "Kyo-chan is the boss."

She giggled. "The boss! That's so fitting of you!" I watched her connect her hands together and bring them to her chin. Typical pose for a guy obsessed girl; the designators do it all the time. "My dream has always been to be the mascot girl for a store!"

"We don't need one." The twins said together. It felt weird when they talked and were so close to me. "We're a host club, not a store."

"Then I shall become the manager of this host club!"

I honestly had no way to describe the pose she was taking when announcing that… but afterwards, she stood up, walked to the side and bowed. Tamaki said something to Kyoya, which I couldn't hear, but ended in him sulking.

"I look forward to working with all of you."

-

**The Next Day**

For some strange reason, when Tamaki called a group meeting inside the Third Music Room, I was stuck in the same position as yesterday, against my will _again_.

"Would you two let me go?" I had snapped. They had simply said no, and left it at that. I wondered if it would be one of the times they would just get bored enough to let me go if I ignored them.

"I've thought about this a lot yesterday," Tamaki explained, "and a female manager might not be such a good idea after all."

"Huh? I fail to see the reason…" I mumbled. "She's annoying." The twins tightened their grip on my and chuckled. Apparently, they thought the same thing.

"You can't see it? She is transferring into the same class as Haruhi." He continued. I sighed; somehow, it always goes back to Haruhi. "If she can make female friends, Haruhi may become more girl-like. The gentle atmosphere that is shared uniquely by girls will awaken the femininity inside of Haruhi."

"Sorry I'm not girly enough," I said, the same time Haruhi muttered: "Oh, just great."

"This is a great project to have Haruhi become more aware of what it is to be a fair maiden!"

"I don't exactly see her jumping for joy, senpai. Shouldn't you just let things be?"

"You would think he'd learn by now," Hikaru agreed.

Tamaki pointed towards the twins, "It won't help Haruhi at all if her only classmate friends are these unscrupulous twins!"

"Oh, that's something really nice to say," they both sighed together.

"What am I? Invisible?" I regretted saying that once I did, because his mood instantly changed into his typical way-to-happy one.

"Oh, Reina! Daddy's perfectly okay with his daughter!"

"Didn't I tell you not to call me that?!"

Behind me, and the twins I guess, I heard the door creek open. I wanted to turn to look, but Hikaru and Kaoru restricted my arm movement. What _really_ ticked me off was that they could move just fine.

"Everybody!" The voice told me who it was, so I didn't need to turn anymore. Actually, my whole mood changed; I didn't even want to be there anymore. Staring at the ceiling would be better then being sandwiched like this. I decided to do that anyway, and noticed that even the ceiling in this place was beautifully carved compared to the flat, boring roof in my own home.

Stupid rich people… that was a saying I kept stealing from Haruhi. But you know what? It worked.

"Renge, the host club's mascot girl, has baked some cookies for you!"

Tamaki stood up and took one of his 'princely' poses, "Oh! That's so ladylike!" Smirking slightly, he brought a hand up to his forehead and the other rested on his hip.  
"I am so touched--"

"I didn't bake them for you, phony prince."

I tried not to laugh at her answer, but when he started to sulk in the corner I wasn't able to hold it back any longer. There weren't that many girls immune to Tamaki's 'charm', so she made it three. Many of the members were on their feet, and I tried to stand too. Thinking the twins would pull me back down, I was surprised when they let me step away and beside Haruhi.

"They got burnt a little," she said, holding them out to Kyoya. "But I know what you'd say: Anything you've made has got to be delicious! Oh, that's so nice of you, Kyoya-sama!!"

Somehow, the cookie tin ended up in Haruhi's hands, and Hunny had already bit into one, saying how it really was a 'bit burnt'. Mori came up and told him not to eat it, which changed Renge's mood for the worse.

Haruhi and I looked at each other, and both took a cookie at the same time.

"It has a good odour, and it's not that bad," she said after taking a bite.

Without hesitating, I took a bite of my own. "It needs a little more sugar, and less flour, but you're right. They're pretty good."

I turned around, sensing something I was used to by now, even though I had only been in the club about a week. The twins were planning; the only problem? They weren't where they had been a minute ago.

Raising the cookie to my mouth, I mumbled: "Where they hell did they go?"

I should've known better.

Someone's hands rested on my hips from behind, sliding their arms under mine to keep me in place, and using their hands to turn my face to the side. The closeness gave me goose bumps, strong enough to immobilize me so I couldn't stop what was happening.

"Rei-chan, let me see," someone breathed. I recognized the voice as Hikaru's immediately, and saw his face lean into my own. He bit the end of the cookie still in my mouth, and snapped it in half. Less then a metre away, Kaoru rested his head on Haruhi's head, and licked the cookie crumbs off her cheek.

By the reaction Tamaki gave, and how suddenly he came out from his corner, I figured it had been just a scheme to tease the Host King. But that doesn't mean it didn't piss me off.

"What the _hell _is your problem?!"

"Ow! Kaoru, why did I let you take the easy one?"

I glared at him, watching him rub his head in pain. He was lucky he would leave today with only a bump, if he didn't try that again. It was hard enough slowing my heart beat down this time.

"You know," Haruhi mumbled to Kaoru, "I could've taken it off myself if you had told me."

"Y-you're reactions are very wrong!" Tamaki shouted, grabbing the brown-haired girl by the shoulders. "That's where you should show rejection, not let things go!"

"Senpai, would you please stop sexually harassing Haruhi?" I told him bluntly.

"Sexual harassment?! If I was sexually harassing her, _they_ are evil criminals!"

"How the hell does that make sense?!"

"Policemen, help!"

"Hai, hai, sorry my lord."

"I am the king!"

"Yeah, yeah, we're sorry!"

"Not good enough. You guys are not good enough!" Everyone turned after Renge yelled. Hunny had been standing in front of her, but ran behind Mori. "Other then those two, your characters are all not good enough!"

'_Those two?' _I blinked following her finger to see who she was pointing at. Kyoya-senpai; but that made sense. She was obsessed with him. And the person beside him —me? What the hell? I didn't want anything to do with this!

"All you hosts' here lack a 'shadowy' side! Fair maidens are suckers for the traumas of handsome men! With ridiculous acts like these, it's only a matter of time before the girls get bored of you; do you really intend on destroying Kyoya-sama's precious club?! As the manager, I shall set anew your characters from now on!"

"I-Is that really necessary?" I questioned, feeling the twin's stares burn into my head.

"Of course it is, and I'm starting with you!" Renge pointed at Hunny, who had placed himself around Mori's neck like a necklace. "If your inside _and _outside are nothing but cute, then you're no different from a child!"

Personally, I liked that part of him, other then the fact that it brought the mother out of me… easily too.

"Although you have a cute face, you're actually a vicious fiend inside!"

That was the part I stopped really focusing on her words, and wandered around in my own thoughts. I heard the basic part's about who needed to change and how. Mori, Honey's evil underling. Twins, basketball players who are stuck in their own world. Haruhi, smart student who was a victim of bullying. And Tamaki was a loner prince who was idled by everyone.

I clicked back in when she turned around and said cheerfully to Kyoya, "Ah, you're perfect, Kyoya-sama! Please stay as the affectionate person you are."

"I am honoured."

Walking up to them, and ignoring Tamaki's cries and attention pleas, I said: "I understand your affection towards Kyoya-senpai, but I don't get why I don't need to change, not that I want it too…"

"Rei-san, girls absolutely love your character! So you just stay the way you are!"

She danced off to do her own little planning, while I stared blankly after her. Maybe that would make me happier if I was actually male…

I sighed. "Kyoya-senpai, do we really have to go through with this?"

"Please do something about it!" The twins whined, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him away from Renge's ears.

"But the president seems to be up for it."

"Is a lonely pose something like this?"

"My, that's mighty impressive, Tamaki-san!"

Quietly closing the door to the club behind me, I stepped into the cool workers kitchen. The employees looked at me, and the three started whispering to each other about who knows what. I ignored them, heading to the small area in the back where Haruhi and I put our bags during club time. I reached inside, and pulled out a small capped bottle, ignoring the coloured label, since I had stared at the back for a _long_ time before purchasing it.

All the headache medicine in the world wasn't going to save me from the next couple days of hell that was to come.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! ^__^**


	6. Free

**Tsunagaru: Chapter Five**

**Free  
**

**Akane: Yay! Next chapter out! :D But the next one won't be out until I work on my Gundam Seed one a little……. *sweatdrops***

**I'm happy some of the main plot for Rei's story is going to start showing itself, not that I can give any away to you. :P **

**Azami: ….**

**Akane: Oh, right! I have another friend here who wants to do the Disclaimer! :D Also, if anyone one else wants to come do it, don't feel shy to ask! Here's Goodnight&Goodbye! ^_^**

**G&G: ****Ums ums ums........ Ok... Ums...... Hm............. :/ ... Uuuum................... Ok, well, the characters and places in this story do NOT belong to my senpai! Except for Rei and any other additional OCs. K? Got it? Good... And remember... Never, I repeat, NEVER eat McDonalds... It's eeeevvvvvviiiiiillll... *is traumatized by watching Super Size Me in Health class* O_O**

**Akane: ….. That movie scared me… **

**Azami: …….. *coughs***

**Akane: Right, right! I hope you like this chapter and R&R! Also, I apologize for those who don't like some of Haruhi's parts that Rei takes over. **

**

* * *

**

_The grieving hearts cross each other._

_They pass each other, they wound each other._

In the rain, two students feared the worst. One watched the other fall to the ground, struck by the taller of the two others.

"You should remember well what happens when you defy me."

The student, black hair covering his face, tried to sit up, but only managed to stare at the older students who had them cornered.

"Stop it, Mitsukuni." The taller one warned. Even though it was him who struck the boy, he was only following instructions.

"Don't tell me what to do, Takashi."

"Leave us alone," the boy managed to spit out, finally getting back to his feet. Wiping the small line of blood from his chin, he stood in front of the other boys again. His friend, back against a tree in fear, hadn't moved an inch or said a word.

"You want to be punished again?"

_What kind of resolution will be waiting for them?_

_Will it be the light of salvation, or…_

The small boy, stepping in front of his taller comrade, grinned. "I really despise people who don't know their place."

The defending boy tensed, prepared to do anything that would save his friend from the oncoming pain.

-

But just like that, he started crying, and ran into my arms. "I'm sorry, Rei-chan! I really don't want to do this! I even got you hurt!"

Sighing, I rubbed his back in an attempt to calm Honey down. Haruhi stood and brushed off her pants. "It's alright; it didn't hurt senpai, so don't worry. Calm down."

"Cut! Cut, cut, cut!!!"

With Honey wrapped around my neck, I turned to the screaming girl and the crew behind her. Mori, the one who hit me, stepped up beside me and offered (through hand movements since it was rare when he actually used words) to take the crying senior away from me. I shook my head.

"You, follow the script already!"

"I don't want to hurt Rei-chan again!!" he cried out.

"Renge-san, maybe this isn't a good idea," I mumbled, not really caring if she could even hear me. She wouldn't listen anyway.

While Renge started running around giving everyone orders, I snuck off the set to hide from her and the camera's, not realizing both Mori and Haruhi decided to follow. Mori offered to take the still upset Honey from my neck again, and with a nod I agreed this time. He could probably deal with him better then I could.

"Why did a change in our characters end up as a film shoot?" I heard. Beside us, Hikaru and Kaoru sat in chairs, wrapped in warm coats once they were dry. I hated being wet; it was a horrible feeling.

One of the crewmen handed me a small towel before running back to Renge to follow more or her instructions. Kyoya was explaining to Haruhi and the twins who the film director was, and the works he has made in the past. 'The Millennium Snow' was a movie I had personally liked… drawn to it by the love of vampires.

"And why does Rei protect Haruhi in this script?" I heard Hikaru complain.

I turned to him, raising an eyebrow at why something like that would be a big deal. "Because _apparently_ my existing character is an over protective person, who wants no harm to come to the few friends he has."

The two of them grinned, questioning in unison: "Even us?"

"It would, if the two of you would even qualify in that category."

I wanted to see what reaction they would have, continuing our little word fight until there was a victor, but I was dragged off by the girls who had been extra's in the basketball scene.

"Rei-kun! That was amazing!"

"Where did you learn to act like that?"

Oh, if only I could tell them the truth of my gender _just_ to get them away from me….

"Ladies, I --" I managed to get out, but the three of them weren't even talking _to_ me anymore.

"And the rain scene!"

"I know! The way he risked getting hurt to protect Haruhi-kun!"

"I never imagined Hunny-senpai could be like that!"

"Um….. " I muttered loudly, gaining their attention to put my plan in action before the girly squeals drove me insane. "That's a weird place to put a piano…"

At once, they turned where I was looking, searching for an item that doesn't exist. I slipped around the corner while they were distracted. From my spot in the shadows, I could hear them react to my disappearance; stepping out only when they were gone for sure. With a quick peek around the corner, I sighed in relief.

"I've asked these gentlemen for a special appearance."

I turned around, seeing a small group of people ahead of me. Haruhi and Renge were there, and two other male students I didn't recognize. Renge appeared to be introducing them.

"Appearance?" The one questioned. They both looked as if they were mad, or just didn't understand why they were there.

I was going to go with the second option…

"For the climax," Renge began to explain enthusiastically. I started making my way towards them. "We definitely need villains!"

Haruhi was first to notice me, giving me an obvious 'help me' expression as Renge continued on.

"The club members, who were all disunited, will all become 'one' when they fight a true villain!"

"Is she…. Serious?"

Haruhi sighed, "I really hope not…."

"According to my report, they are actually sons of Japanese mafia members: the perfect villains just for this situation!"

The two male students were becoming more furious with each passing moment, but I saw they were more annoyed then anything. Renge was going too far with this.

"What's wrong with this woman?"

"Who our parents are has nothing to do with us!"

"Renge-san!" I grabbed onto her arm with mine. "You can't just --"

Even with me holding her arm, she reached out to one of the boys and started ordering him around. Haruhi was trying to talk her out of it with me, but neither of us could reach her.

The boy snapped her hand away from him, "Saying whatever you want… you don't even know us!"

Before I could stop anything from happening, the boy had pushed Renge as far away from him as possible and with all his might. She collided with my body, but the position she hit me was awkward; there was no way I could stop us from falling without taking Haruhi with us. We crashed into the boards and light stands against the wall nearby, all things leftover from the set. As I landed, one of the things tilted away from all the other falling objects, landing hard on my head.

"Itai!" I groaned through my teeth, afraid of screaming if my mouth was any wider.

Renge seemed to be fine, but Haruhi had hit the wall pretty hard. I closed my eyes as if it made the pain in my head go away, swallowing the iron taste in my mouth. Renge's frantic breathing filled my ears, even though I knew we were no longer that close.

"Haruhi! Are you alright?!"

"Renge-chan," I heard Haruhi answer. "What they said is right. Once you classify people into categories, you won't be able to see what's really important."

"I'm not sure what you're trying to say…"

With the help of the wall, and several failed attempts, I managed to get back on my feet. I had zoned out what had happened in the mean time, only to realize the two other boys were gone, Tamaki was with Haruhi and was laughing while Renge shouted something at the camera.

"Other than the contacts, this was the ideal last scene!" She called out. "All we need now is a touching narration from my darling Kyoya-sama --!"

The sudden shatter of glass startled me, and the noise was painful to hear. Renge gasped.

Kyoya, holding a rock, stared with the same look he always did, even as the camera's lens crashed beside me. In a second, I clicked into what had occurred, or at least enough that is didn't confuse me.

"Kyoya-sama?" she questioned, stuttering slightly.

He answered simply, "I'm sorry to say, but there cannot be any record of our club members displaying violence." He threw the rock to the side, out of anyone's way. Even a passing stranger would have been able tell how upset he was, just by his face. It didn't look like he was angry, just troubled with some kind of burden. I didn't doubt this; he probably thought this was more work then it should be. "Causing us trouble like this is extremely unpleasant."

After a moment of silence passed, part of me wondered if he had been way too harsh, while the other knew he was right.

"Why?" I barely heard her whimper, she raised her voice: "Kyoya-sama would've said "don't worry about it" and gently caressed my head!" The tone she cried out made it easy to realize she was really crying, even if I couldn't see her face. I forced myself to step forward, ignoring Tamaki and Haruhi's look as I passed them. "People full of affectionate love like you… I don't understand!"

No one should cry over such a reason like this.

"Renge-chan." I whispered, gently resting my hand on her shoulder, careful not to alarm her. I only had a small idea of why I wanted to comfort her so much. "It's because that's not who he truly is." She turned to me, and while she cried, collapsed to her knees.

A brief image flashed in my eyes. An image of a different place, and Renge's form changed into a middle-aged woman with long silky hair. She cried and cried, but the name she called could no longer hear her.

Sighing, I forced myself back into the present and knelt down in front of her.

"What's wrong with that?" She looked up to me with her tear filled eyes. "So what if he's a little different then you imagined, no one is perfect. If you think about it, isn't it better to look at people and actually know them? Who they are? Its fun when you do it properly, because you get to know them more and more and time moves on.

"And then, you hold on to them as long as you can."

-

Three days have passed since that incident.

Renge had been silent after what I had said, almost as if thinking it through. Before I could've said anything to her, the twins came after hearing all of the commotion. They were the ones to notice that I not only had a bump on my head, but I had been _bleeding_. I was furious when the school nurse cleaned me up why no one had noticed before, which sent Tamaki into an outrage. Quickly, I had pointed out to him how he hadn't noticed either, and sent him into his corner, growing mushrooms this time.

I knew, even though the whole thing gave me a mild concussion, Kyoya was still going to get me to clean those up.

Going to the nurse early in the morning to take off the bandages had been stressful, with my small entourage waiting to congratulate me on my recovery. Kyoya had managed to somehow make everyone think I had tripped on a bucket that had been left out by a cleaner. I hated how he had made me sound like a klutz, but didn't argue. The girls seemed to love pampering me and doing their best to make me feel better.

It may have annoyed me at first, but they really did mean well.

"Kyoya-kun! I've bought that video!"

………… video?

Every host in the room stopped what they were doing and turned to him, all wondering the same thing. The girls I was pouring tea for also joined in the conversation. Once I had lost their attention, I looked around, only to notice _all_ of them were on the subject of this mysterious video.

"You bought it too?"

"Yes! How could I resist?"

What the hell was going on?

"The rain scene was the best! The prince of loneliness!"

"Hikaru-sama and Kaoru-sama's relationship was so good!"

"I want to see Honey-kun's fiendish nature again!"

"Haruhi-kun's agonized look… and the way Rei-kun risked his own safety!"

"Hai, hai! Especially that!"

As the girls continued their chatter, the tea pot in my hand shook with anger; there was only one way all of that stuff could've leaked out to the customers.

Who was the one always obsessed with making money?

"Kyoya…" Tamaki questioned from a couch nearby. He almost sounded annoyed, which made it the first time I've ever heard that tone coming from him.

Kyoya, currently writing away in his notepad, did not bother to turn to him when he answered. "I secured the film even though I broke the lens. Of course, I've cut out the violence scene."

"Why would you do that?" I whined, placing put the pot on the cart before I had a chance to break it. That would be another thing I didn't want Kyoya to 'own' me for.

"You see, sales for the film are mediocre. As expected from a first-class crew from Hollywood; they left us a very well done job."

"This is the interesting thing you talking about?" The twins asked. I hadn't even realized they were standing extremely close to me.

"There's nothing wrong with having more club funds, right?"

With that said and done, he pushed up his glasses and walked away.

Haruhi sighed. "When did this guy plan out all that?"

"I have no idea…. It's like all he does when he's at home is lock himself in a room, sit in a corner, and laugh maniacally as he thinks of ways to torture us."

"…"

"Sorry."

"Good day, everyone."

Again, we turned, facing the entrance door to the club room this time. The reaction I got when I saw her was mixed; I was confused and annoyed that she was still in Japan, but I think part of me was happy she was here and willing to change.

"Didn't you go back to France, Renge-chan?" Tamaki asked her.

"Well, I decided against it. I've noticed…." Renge, still wearing the Ouran female uniform, brought her hands together and sighed dreamily. "The gentleness that protected me with his body, and the deep love behind such scolding words!"

She stepped up to me, ignoring the twins at my sides that glared at her, and took both of my hands in hers. "Rei-kun…. This is what it means to look at someone and fall in love with them, right? I've decided to stay, so I can get to know you!"

" … Excuse me?" I blinked, not believing something like that actually just happened. It wasn't like I could tell her I was a girl and not interested. As I tried to come up with an answer, she pulled me away from the twin's grasp, which made them furious as she dragged me away. She was _strong_ when she wanted to be. "H-hey!"

"Come, Rei-kun! Let's play games at my house! I heard you like them."

"Renge-chan, now's not the best time for this!"

"Nonsense! I must let you learn more about me!"

"Let him go!"

"He's our toy, not yours!"

"I'm not a _toy_!!"

"Haruhi-kun! You come to!"

"What? W-wait a minute!"

While this scene played out, a worried Honey looked up to the tall Kyoya, who had come back from whatever he had been doing. "Kyo-chan? Is that okay?"

"There's nothing wrong with what she said."

"No it's not!" Tamaki screamed at him, waving his arms around wildly.

"They are now girlfriends with each other, just like you wanted."

"That's not girlfriends! She's taking them away from me!"

"This doesn't have anything to do with you, tono!"

"Of course it does!"

"Would you all just _shut up_ and help us here!"

-

Somehow, Haruhi and I had managed to escape from Renge's clutches, because Kyoya had explained how the club was busy and he needed us to stay.

For once, I was happy to be cleaning that place.

It was nice to be outside and by myself, compared to everything that came with the last few days. The whole thing had been one problem after another, but it was finally over and I was taking the long way back home instead of the usually way. Instead of back alleys and shops, I walked by houses and a park. A moment passed, and a school appeared as I turned a corner.

Some sort of object flew straight at me. I managed to stop it before it hit my face, and examined the item.

"A soccer ball?"

"Hey!" I heard someone shout at me. Looking up, I noticed a small group of boys standing by the entrance of the school's field. They all wore matching uniforms. "Can you kick that back?"

"Tosuke!" One of them whined, rolling his eyes and turning away from me. "Do you realize who this kid is?"

The first boy, a blond haired boy wearing a blue headband that was the same as his uniform, looked at him. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"He's obviously one of those rich snobs from that Academy nearby! Just look at his uniform!" Another one explained.

I frowned; how dare they judge me based on appearance alone.

Tosuke tilted his head. "Oh…."

"We might as well go get another one, 'cause snobs don't like sharing with commoners like us."

"_How dare you._"

Before they could even realize what was going on, I kicked the ball towards them. The third boy fell when they collided, taking another boy with him. All of them, except for Tosuke, stared down at them in shock.

"I'd have you all know I did not make it into Ouran because my father is a business man or my mother is designer." I snapped at them. "I worked hard getting a scholarship so I could get into that school! I am _**not**_ a snob!"

Silence; but the silence was broken by laughter.

"T-Tosuke!"

The boy was laughing, but I didn't know if it was at me or his friend. There was no sense of ill behind it, just an innocent laugh. A kind of friendly laugh you couldn't get mad at.

"You've got a nice kick!" He laughed, widening his smile into a grin. "No one's every knocked Koshiro down before!"

"Hey! Don't tell him that!"

"Aw, come on! Don't be so mad!"

I watched Tosuke walk up to me, and hold out his hand. I was suspicious at first, but felt there were no lies behind the smile he gave me. "Sorry about my friends; we don't often see anyone from the Academy 'round here."

"Well, I can't blame you for that."

"What's your name, anyway? So I can remember for the next time you came this way."

He was already planning a 'next time'? I had only gone this way by a last minute choice. "Rei, Rei Takahashi."

"It's nice to meet you! I'm Tosuke Nobuo!"

It was weird, he was being so friendly to someone he had just met. Why was it so easy for some people?

"Hey Rei? Do you want to play with us? We only have five players today, so if you joined we could go three-on-three."

I looked away from him and looked at my watch. The club had left early today because of the whole Renge thing, and I still had time before making dinner, so I agreed.

The one thing I never realized was before meeting the host club, everything around me had its own universe while I was stuck in mine. My world had been frozen while theirs continued to turn at an inhuman speed, leaving me far behind in the dust.

I wonder if that was when my world first broke free.

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**Hope you liked it! :D**


	7. Haruhi

**Tsunagaru: Chapter Six**

**Haruhi**

**Akane: Hi peoplez!! :3 I managed to get a chapter out between school, work, and Anime North planning, aren't you proud of me? **

**Azami: *hands cookie* **

**Akane: Yay! :D Oh, two things; one, don't feel shy if you want to be a guest and do a disclaimer, and two, **_**KairitheStrong**_** was supposed to do this disclaimer, but because she's disappeared (D:) I have **_**GoodnightandGoodbye**_** here again! :D**

**G&G: **... **Damn... Um... Ok, I can do this... Um... I'm back!... And uh... Just to tell you Akane-senpai does not own Ouran High School Host Club! But she does own Rei. Whether Reina likes it or not... She probably doesn't, but it makes Tamaki happy! :D**

**Akane: Yay! Arigato, Me-chan! :3 Anyways, here we go; enjoy!**

**R&R!!!!**

* * *

I yawned, losing my focus on my key as I tried to lock my door. It took me another second to straighten myself before I finally heard the metallic click.

Between Host Club activities, keeping the apartment, and doing homework that the teachers never check anyways, I only got about four hours of sleep. This was my second time locking the door after having to go back for my books, as if feeling like the walking dead wasn't bad enough. It ruined my morning routine of getting to school before any of the other students since I was already twenty minutes late. It's not that I wanted to be early for classes, just that I like missing all the students on the way in; before it was just students asking me questions about my lifestyle, now it was girls swooning over the club and guys wondering how I did it. It was all very frustrating.

By the time I realized I was halfway to school, I noticed a familiar uniform walking down from a group of low rise apartments almost exactly like mine, but a little more done-up. I remember looking at one of those apartments, only to find out how much the rent cost compared to how much I could afford. It's not very often you find an apartment where the landlady lowers your rent if you help her fix it up. I was lucky that way.

"Haruhi!" I called out once she stepped onto the sidewalk. She turned and blinked as I ran to catch up to her. "I didn't know you lived around here."

Before I knew it, we started walking. "I never thought you lived nearby either."

"Yeah, I'm only a couple blocks that way" I motioned with my thumb "barely a ten minute walk. It's funny how we've never run into each other before now."

She nodded. "Do you have any idea what Tamaki-senpai has planned for today?"

"No, but I'll bet eight hundred yen it won't be good….. and it'll probably involve frills."

-

Lunch came around faster then I thought it would.

A teacher actually showed up for second period history, and gave a lesson on the Akagawa Clan and the Sengoku period. Sure, the only thing that was even considered as 'work' were the notes we copied from the board, but it was still better then the nothing we've been doing all week.

The lunch bell only rang ten minutes after the teacher left us to our 'independent' studies. In other words: rich student social time. Whether flaunting their money or planning elaborate trips with another classmate, it didn't surprise me anymore, nor did I care. Since I've been in the host club, my surroundings have been easier to notice, compared to before when I never looked at faces or bothered to remember names. Girls talked among girls, and guys would do the same. Sometimes guys would try to talk to the girls to win them over, telling them about their father's business or their mother's money. The two groups flirted with each other more then they realized.

High school is still high school I guess, no matter how much money you have.

Hikaru and Kaoru always took out one of their game systems when the teacher left, either a Nintendo DS or a Play Station Portable. I ignored their variety of colours.

Haruhi would switch with Hikaru and turn her chair around so we could do the work that was assigned. We'd done this the first day I went to class in the male uniform; my second day in the host club. Haruhi was having some trouble with math, our first period class. I always helped her out, and she'd return the favour in English, fourth period. Our third period was chemistry. After lunch, the classes were switched around, and I had modern literature with Haruhi and Kaoru, and physics with Hikaru. I'd heard that Hikaru had made a big deal when he found out his brother wasn't in that class, but I couldn't remember.

The day I first helped Haruhi with Math, the girls in the class had been watching us and swooned over the new friendship. They went on about me being the new member and all asked me for help at once. It was sudden, it scared the hell out of me, and I resisted the urge to yell at them. Once I saw the twins laughing at me from their seats, I smirked and reached out for one of the girls' hands. She blushed, I muttered "Are you sure you want my help? Someone like me…. Helping a beauty like you?" The girl squealed, shortly followed by the others. I stuck my tongue out at the twins; their faces were priceless.

Anyways, back to the present.

When the bell rang, I grabbed my notes and my bag. My stomach groaned, telling me to hurry my pace so I could eat something. As I made my way to the door, the twins voice made me stop and turn around.

"Come on, Haruhi! You should come eat with us!"

"I don't see the point, really… I'm fine eating here."

"But Haruhi, we think you should come with us!"

Poor Haruhi didn't deserve this… so I thought of a plan. A plan I've used before and hey, it worked on the girls.

"Hey guys, look!" I called out. Most of the other students were gone. "There's a purple elephant outside the window!"

"What? Don't be stupid, there's no such thing."

"What's up with you?"

The funny part was, they actually looked. Silly, gullible twins.

The second they turned, I grabbed Haruhi's hands and ran.

-

"Wow, I never knew this place existed…"

I laughed: "I know. It's like it's invisible to everyone else."

It didn't surprise me if it was, since the door that led to the stairs said 'Janitor' in large bold letters. That room was on the left though; the stairs were on the right. My first day, I got lost and refused to ask any of the students, so I followed the janitor into the room and saw the stairs. Sanada-san was the janitor, and he had laughed at me when I said I was amazed no one was here. He told me to use it anytime, and I did.

The roof was the only real normal part of the whole school, which was probably why I liked it so much. Normal roof, normal fence, normal random benches…

"Do you always eat up here?"

Haruhi sat beside me, digging out her own bento from her bag. I wondered what kind of food she had. "Yeah, it's nice and quiet here. No freakishly rich people here to bug me."

I took a small bite of my lunch, an onigiri, and watched Haruhi open her bento. Sure, it wasn't a lot of food compared to most lunches, but compared to me…. Well I wasn't used to seeing so much food.

"Just one? Is that all you eat?" she asked me, looking from her bento to mine.

"N-no… I just ate too much food this morning, so I didn't pack much…"

"Oh… does your aunt make your meals?" she asked. "Or do you make them yourself?"

I opened my mouth, preparing myself to say something like "Nah, my aunt couldn't cook to save her life", but as Haruhi turned to me I lost any ideas. She knew I was a girl, so why should I lie? Like I have been for the past few years? Sure, I wasn't going to tell her everything that's ever happened to me, but hey; might as well trust the one person going through the same thing as you… in a way.

"I don't live with my aunt. It's just me."

-

"Would you both stop doing that?"

"No!"

"Not until you tell us!"

Covering my left ear with my hand, I got off the couch and headed for my favourite place in the third music room: one of the windows against the west wall where the window sill was low enough for someone to sit on. I've spent a lot of before club time on it, just staring outside, even falling asleep a couple times.

The twins were hopefully tired of tugging on my ear cuff, which they did in hopes that I would tell them why I wore it, and didn't follow me. They continued to whine and complain though, but I ignored them and took a seat. Everyone, except Tamaki, was in the room already and doing their own thing. Reading, snacking, counting leaves on a tree, typing, watching his cousin eat cake…… we were a very boring crowd.

We were all still waiting for the energetic blond to return, after running out and yelling 'I forgot it! Don't start without me!' fifteen minutes ago. The club started in another ten minutes, at exactly four o'clock, and the customers were already crowding the music's room entrance in hopes to get in a little early. If we waited any longer, I figured their excitement would cause them to knock the door down. I couldn't help but watch the seconds tick by, counting them as they passed minute by minute.

Thirty eight…. Thirty nine….

One hundred and four seconds later, the girls in the hall squealed and cried out all at once, greeting someone as he walked by. I turned to see him closing the door behind him,

Hikaru and Kaoru demanded to know where he had gone and what took him so long as Honey-senpai asked what was in the bag he carried. Automatically, I was suspicious of that bag; it looked like the same bag he had brought in the first day.

"Ne, Tama-chan? What's in the bag?" Honey asked again.

Tamaki, still tired by running from who-knows-where, pushed by the twins and held the bag out in front of him. I still had this bad feeling…. Like this wouldn't be good for me…. Or possibly Haruhi… it was really whoever he decided to pick on today. "Well you see, one of the girls said something yesterday that gave me a wonderful idea for a theme!"

"Tamaki, we no longer have time for a new theme today," Kyoya sighed from his seat, still typing away on his laptop.

"Oh no, don't be silly!" Tamaki laughed, "It's not for today! It's for another day, there's just one thing I need to fix!"

"Great," I mumbled sarcastically, rolling my eyes at his excitement.

He heard me, I know he did. Tamaki might be oblivious to most things, but it was as if he had the hearing of a dog. Like a golden retriever….

"Reina!" He cried out enthusiastically. I would've killed him if the door wasn't still closed, but his cry dragged me out of my random imagination that imagined the whole club each as a different breed of dog…. Mori as a silent, watching Great Dane…. "You are not to go home until you try on what's in this bag! You're the only one here I do not have measurements for!"

"Wait, since when did you have mine?" I heard Haruhi question nearby. She had moved from her reading spot when Tamaki had ran in.

My bored eyes met Tamaki's over excited ones, and asked simply: "Do I have too?"

"Absolutely!"

I stared at him, he smiled back.

Finally, about a minute later, I muttered a 'fine' in defeat, (which he shouted 'hurray!' right after) and I turned back to the window. The peace didn't last very long.

Kyoya had to open the door.

-

"Rei-kun? What's your favourite flower?"

Turning to the girl sitting at my right, - I believe her name was Hana, one of my first customers – I slightly tilted my head and gave her a confused look. "Favourite flower? I don't understand."

The girls all tried to explain it at once, but I couldn't register what they were really saying when they did that. There was only five of them for this hour, each comfortably seated on the couches around me. It's not that I didn't understand the question; I just didn't completely get the meaning behind it. We had been talking about a completely different subject.

They calmed down when Hana started up again. "I wanted to know which flower you liked best, since your table always has these roses on them…" She motioned to the table's centerpiece, a vase filled with beautiful, healthy roses. I knew what she meant, since they weren't simply everyday roses: They were black.

It was one of Renge's ideas that each host have their own color of rose, and each would somewhat represent their character. She had said that the black fit my lonely and mysterious character perfectly. I wondered if she truly knew what a black rose symbolized, and also where she managed to find real black roses in the first place.

"Honestly," I sighed after a moment, snapping off the end of one of the roses and twirling it between my fingers. They turned, watching me, and awaited my answer. "I'm not such a fan of flowers. Their beauty doesn't last forever; sooner or later they wither and die, and there's nothing left…" I stopped myself before I could say anything worse, realizing no one would want to hear such a depressing opinion of mine. My eyes met Hana's, and I thought of something that wouldn't make the girls so sad.

"But you see, the beauty in your eyes is something much greater then the false beauty of a flower."

Those words, and a small brush of my hand, were enough to make all of them forget about anything I had previously said.

Moments later, Haruhi called to me to ask for help with the tea, so I told the girls that I'd be right back. They seemed to be fine that they were losing time that they've already paid for….

It was our job to give each table fresh tea every thirty minutes, because Kyoya didn't allow extra help during club hours. The bakers and chefs would get ready while we were in school, but would disappear as soon as the bell rang. That's why Haruhi and I would always have to put out the tea and sweets. It usually didn't take more then five minutes.

We were almost done the tables when Haruhi slipped, but she managed to balance herself without dropping the pot in her hands. Tamaki jumped up and offered to help her, which she refused in turn. He reached out to take the pot from her, saying something like 'Otou-san doesn't want you to get hurt!' Haruhi pulled away.

And she slipped. Again.

Instantly, I reacted without thinking and jumped in the way. Tamaki had already caught Haruhi, but the tea pot was still falling towards the couch she had been near. Senpai's customers were still there.

-

Haruhi couldn't believe it.

Between the screams and the shouting, it took her a minute to gather her thoughts together to be of any help. The girls and Tamaki were panicking, and she was too focused now to know what the others were doing. She could hear the twins calling out, but that was it.

Rei had collapsed, clutching to the arm of the couch in pain. The pot's shattered pieces surrounded her.

"Rei-kun!"

"Someone call the nurse!"

"Rei! Answer us!"

"S-stop it!" She shouted out, slapping away Hikaru and Kaoru's help and instead using the couch to try standing. "I'll be fine on my own!"

Haruhi reached out to her before she could stumble, and started leading her towards the changing rooms. Rei didn't refuse or argue. "Someone please get me some cold water and a cloth!" She heard Kyoya tell the customers the club was closing early as the door closed behind them.

She led Rei to the chair behind the changing curtains before getting the bowl of water from one of the twins. Even though the door to the host room was closed, Haruhi knew everyone would be waiting to hear if the burn was serious.

"Kyoya-senpai gave me an extra uniform for you to switch to, once we cool down the burn." Haruhi called out from her side of the curtain, and Rei called her in a few seconds later.

Freezing at what she saw before her, Haruhi wasn't sure if she should move from her spot. Rei's top half was almost completely bare, a layer of bandages were all that was left.

She sighed and reached for the cloth.

-

"You really go through a lot to hide your gender, don't you?" She asked me.

Before then, saying anything was hard, because I didn't really want to risk screaming out in pain. It was a little easier with Haruhi dabbing a cold cloth on my back. This was going to hurt for at least another two weeks….

"I guess I do…." I mumbled softly, fiddling with the towel in my hands. It was the only thing protecting my naked front; even though we were both females, there was still a change someone else would come into the room. "Don't you do the same?"

She hesitated. "Well… all of this kind of happened by accident, so I don't really understand."

"I see…"

A few more moments of silence past between us, before she was done and I could put the clean uniform on over the burn. Haruhi was folding my uniform jacket when its pocket's contents spilt onto the floor. She apologized when we both went to pick it up; I gathered the change while she stared at a ticket in her hand.

"Haruhi? Are you okay?"

She nodded, handing the small slip of paper back to me. I was relieved; I thought I'd lost it. "You go to the market, Rei-san?"

"Just Rei, Haruhi. And yeah, I go every Sunday. I'll take it you do too?"

Haruhi nodded again, and before either of us could say anything, there was a slam at the door and a loud, dramatic cry. Our eyes met, and our minds thought of the same thing. We had forgotten about the impatient boys outside this room, and imagined how well our blond senpai was taking this.

We laughed.

-

Okay, so I have to admit I was nervous.

It wasn't the kind of nervous feeling you get on your first date with a guy, (since that was out of the question for me) but the kind of feeling you get when you're not sure you look good enough to go out in public. I couldn't remember the last time I had gone anywhere with anyone, let alone someone I could call a friend.

I was waiting for Haruhi at our meeting place about two blocks away from the Sunday market, wearing something that had taken an hour or more to pick out. A simple outfit like Capri's and a t-shirt with sandals was extremely difficult for me, since I never went anywhere dressed as a girl anymore. My hair was down, magically adding an extra three inches more then my male disguise, and I only had a minimum amount of make-up on my face. Again, other then the small layer I wear as a boy, anything else felt weird when I tried.

It made me realize how deep I was in this.

I turned when I heard Haruhi call out my name. Right then, I truly believed her when she had said she didn't understand; it looked so easy for her to switch over.

"Well, Haru-chan," I started, stealing Honey-senpai's nickname. "You ready to do some bargain hunting?"

Haruhi answered with a yes, and one laugh later, we were off.

Four hours later, we were running back to her house in the rain, trying to keep our bags from getting wet. It was the obvious choice, because it was also the closest.

I was laughing by the time we entered her apartment, finding our soaked clothes and tired feet more amusing then it should be. She wasn't laughing, but I saw her smiling as she took the bags and put them on the counter.

"Why do you like the rain so much?" she questioned, taking off her shoes at the entrance.

I copied her and wrung my hair out in the towel she gave me. "Well, it… calms me down a bit. It shows nothing in the world is perfect and goes as planned."

I took the chance to look around as she led me inside, seeing the small kitchen near the entrance and the larger family room. There was a small door to my right, which I assumed led to a bedroom and a bathroom, and a closet to my left. The family room's only furniture was the table, which somehow made the room seem larger then it actually was. The apartments outside appearance might have looked similar to mine, but the inside was completely different.

Haruhi asked if I wanted to take a shower while she dried up my clothes; normally I would have refused, but a warm shower would be nice on my cold skin, so I agreed.

I joined her back in the family room once I was done, wearing a set of old clothes she said belonged to her father. Haruhi said he wouldn't mind, since he didn't wear them all that much anyways. I figured she meant they had been replaced with newer sets and they didn't bother with the older ones.

Haruhi had already changed, with the sitting pillows at the table all set up. Fiddling to put my hair up in its usual way as a boy I sat down, crossed-legged, and waited for her to join me. My hair dried easier when up like that.

"That felt really good! It's been a while since I took a warm shower like that," I admitted with a content sigh, accepting the glass of milk she handed me. Realizing there was a high chance she was confused, I started to explain. "My place doesn't get warm water a lot, so my showers are cold, and once a week I have to boil enough water to take a bath then wait for it to cool down."

With a small chuckle, I gulped down half of the milk and added another sigh. "Milk afterwards is great too." Haruhi started laughing. "What? What's so funny?"

"Rei, you sounded like such an old man there!"

I froze and blinked, thinking about the sentence she had said. Seconds later, I joined her in the laughter.

"Haruhi!" Someone cried out in a sing-song voice. She stood and ran to the door, welcoming the voice's owner home. I felt uncomfortable as I waited, so continued to stay where I was and sipped the milk.

A woman followed Haruhi back into the room, saw me and started freaking.

Like a Tamaki moment.

"Who is this?! Haruhi, why is there a boy inside our house this late?!"

"D-dad, wait…"

"And why is he dripping wet?! I don't approve of this!!"

She tried to calm the stranger down, while I tried to gather my thoughts. Haruhi's father, dressed like a girl with a dress and makeup. And he was drunk. Fun.

"Um… Fujioka-san? I'm a girl."

Not even a minute later, he was in such high spirits, he insisted I stay the night and pick up my school uniform in the morning.

-

"I'm sorry, Rei. I didn't expect him to go that far."

I shrugged, stepping off the last step in front of my apartment and onto the sidewalk. "What can you do? I have enough headache medicine to last me for a week, so don't worry."

The previous night, her father had managed to get me to join him in some drinks, even though I had insisted over and over I couldn't because I was underage. He wouldn't accept no for an answer, so I finally agreed since they were letting me stay the night. Now, the next morning, Haruhi and I had walked back to my place to change into my school uniform and get my book bag. Together, we headed for Ouran.

"So, what do you think senpai has planned for today?"

"What does he always have planned, Haruhi? To take over the world."

"…. What?"

"Nevermind."

________________________________________________________________________

**Akane: Don't forget to review! :D **


	8. Fight

**Tsunagaru: Chapter Seven**

**Fight**

**Akane: Hi everyone! :D –waves-**

**Azami: -_-**

**Akane: …. I'm sorry this took me so long everyone, but I made this chapter extra long! ;_; Oh, here's Kairi the Strong with my disclaimer!**

**AB: Um, I gotta be quick, cause I stole Kyou's glasses for this. -puts glasses on- Akane-san only owns Rei and the other OCs. No, not Ouran or the hosts, just the OCs.**

**Akane: Thanks! :D Now you should run before Kyoya comes here. ._.**

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* * *

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Life sucks when you're bored.

Honestly, today started out like every other day, but as it progressed I just got tired of it. Tired of the teacher-less classes, the nagging twins and the squealing fan girls; so, when last period rolled around, I just ditched.

So here I was, alone in the Third Music Room, a box of pocky and the newest addition of Dengeki Maoh my only company. I was sure my sudden disappearance wouldn't go unnoticed by the girls, who would miss their chance to swoon over my charm before club hours, and Hikaru, who loved to annoy me twice as much when his brother wasn't around. Something about making up for valuable toy time….. meh. I knew there would be hell to pay later because of him. Also, it wouldn't surprise me if Kyoya gave me a lecture about the Host Club's reputation.

For now, I didn't care.

I also didn't care about the blood rushing to my head, caused by my upside down position on the couch, legs dangling in the air and somehow still managing to get the pocky out of its package on the table beside the empty glass. One of the bakers, (or a cleaner, I couldn't really tell at first) had offered me a glass of Iced Tea when I stepped inside. I was ready to agree, since it was officially the hottest day of the year so far, but I told her it depended on how well she could keep a secret. The girl, not more then sixteen herself, laughed and promised not to tell 'Ootori-san' about this before he could find out on his own. I smiled and said I owed her one, with a smile of course. Who would have guessed that even the hired help could be charmed? Hmm…

Damn it. The rich guys were getting to me.

We spent the first fifteen minutes talking away, mostly about her. Don't worry; she wasn't one of those self-centered girls, the exact opposite actually. I was the one who was asking her all the questions about why she was here and what she was trying to do. She explained about her dream, how she always wanted to become a famous _pâtissier._

_'__Don't laugh, okay?' __she had laughed nervously before continuing. ____'My goal is to make sweets that everyone will enjoy!'_

_I didn't laugh. I mean, why would I? She had a dream, at least._

_The girl went on to tell me about the only opportunity she received for an apprenticeship at Ouran. And here she was; she didn't care if she had to drop out of school to do it. _

_When she was called back into the kitchen, I realized I'd forgotten to ask for her name. Idiot. Especially since she already knew mine and was calling me Rei-kun._

_Finishing the Black Lagoon article in my magazine, I sighed contently and switched my position on the couch, my right leg and arm dangling off the side. The magazine resting on my face to block the light from a stupid, fancy chandelier above me; I liked the idea of a catnap right about now. _

_In and out of sleep I went. Dark and light, blurs and actual images; dreams and nightmares. A girls' laughing face, and a horrible metal screech. _

_Someone called out, but I ignored it. I ignored it until the voice and a bright light destroyed my sleep. It didn't matter if part of me recognized the voice; I still wanted to dismiss the shouts, so I rolled over onto my stomach. The light was gone and the nagging continued. _

_"Oi!" it called. "It's time to get up."_

_"Go away…" I mumbled with a swat of my hand._

_A poke to my side, I growled another go away in return._

_Suddenly, from somewhere behind the couch, I heard the door slam and a shout, then: "What do you think you're doing?! Don't touch my daughter that way!"_

_"Tono? What the heck –"_

_Instantly, my head shot up and my arms flung out to my side, one hand slapping the one who poked me, right across the face. When my eyes finally adjusted to the light, I saw Hikaru holding his cheek about a metre away, Kaoru trying to calm him down. _

_I swallowed my reaction, every girl's instinct that made them burst into an apology, and simply muttered "Don't go around poking people then," instead._

_"You're the one that shouldn't be sleeping in the first place," he grumbled back._

_"Maybe I was tired from being nagged at and teased all the time."_

_"It's not my fault you're fun to tease."_

_"Now, now, you two…"_

_Kaoru's words apparently didn't reach us as we continued to argue, about everything from the club to my skipping class. We didn't notice Tamaki complaining behind us either, ranting on and on about 'shady twins abusing his children'. One stern cough from Kyoya, and the room fell silent._

"Discussing Reina's absence from class is accepted only after club activities. Please refrain from destroying the furniture until after the customers leave."

What was he talking about? It's not like we were mad enough to throw things at each other.

This time.

-

"It's the 'Which one is Hikaru?' game!" They announced.

I sighed after failing to get my customers attention back; they were all too focused with the 'game'. When the twins messed up their hair and put on those matching hats, they'd get the girls to guess which one of them was the older twin. Since my table and Haruhi's were next to theirs, our customers would get sucked into it too.

"Oh, that's so hard…" whispered Minako, another of my designators.

"So far," the twins said together, "no one has been able to really tell who's who."

"It's easy though," I answered quietly, not expecting all of them to turn to me and question which one I thought was Hikaru. So I told them, the one on the left.

For a second, the twins said nothing,

Then, "Wrong!"

Like they did previously, I didn't answer. Just stared at them, wondering what they gained from…. It wasn't worth thinking about, I decided.

"If you say so…" I mumbled, and told the girls I'd go get some more tea.

But, even though I said that, I froze once I got into the kitchen.

Like usual, the staff had gone home, leaving the whole thing to Haruhi and myself. I had made it as far as boiling the water in the fancy expensive kettle, and went to start pouring it into the matching expensive teapot, but my eyes caught my reflection in a glass cabinet. And my body froze.

It was a good several minutes before I realized what was happening and stopped the kettle from over boiling. A large crash had returned me to reality, and stopped myself from dropping the kettle. I didn't even want to know how much that thing was worth….

Leaving the tea behind, in case the chaos outside would cause me to break it, I poked my head outside the door. I never learn.

"I let you guys maintain the club's webpage on the condition that you guys would take it seriously, right?!"

"Yeah, we are doing it seriously."

"We were up until early morning yesterday."

The twins…. Tamaki… I was afraid to know what was going on. Walking up to Haruhi, I asked if she knew, and she said she didn't.

"And these are the graphics you came up with?!?" Tamaki shoved a laptop in Hikaru's and Kaoru's face, not showing the rest of us.

Honey-senpai, as small as he was, managed to squeeze through and take a peek. "Wah! Rei-chan and Haru-chan look so cool!"

With his words, every girl in the room hurried to see whatever was on the screen and began to swoon.

"Haruhi-kun looks so cute!"

"And Rei-kun looks so sexy!"

A variety of comments like this continued.

… now I needed to see this. "What on Earth are you all going on about?"

Haruhi must have seen it already, because she was frozen solid. As I was trying to move the girls around in order to see, I could hear shouting in the background.

I finally saw the screen, and instantly had the urge to kill. On it, there was Haruhi and myself, but we were both half naked, and looked extremely male. Honestly, if I didn't know I was female myself, I wouldn't doubt it. But that wasn't the point.

Why the _heck_ did I have Hikaru's torso!?

I turned and glared at the culprits, feeling myself like a kettle releasing steam. The girls had changed the subject to what they'd like us to wear, Haruhi in female clothing, and… Strange gothic style clothing for me…

"Please stop that," I heard. Haruhi seemed to not like this as much as I did. "Making edited images like that… what exactly are we to you?"

They answered together, with those evil grins on their faces: "That's easy. Our toys."

"… come on, Haruhi, let's go back to work."

"Right."

Together, we ignored them and headed for the kitchen to finish the tea. They didn't like that, and followed anyways. Everyone else had continued their work, and some of the girls were comforting Tamaki. Not that I knew why…

"In order to enjoy your boring life as much as you can," Kaoru started, and his brother finished: "You need toys."

Haruhi sighed, but I turned around again. "Who said you could follow us! And we're not your toys!"

"Toy…. Toy…"

The mood changed in an instant. Not to mention there was a door that wasn't there before…

"If you like toys, you should come to my club: The Black Magic Club. The world famous black magic item market… is now being held…"

…

"We also have a Mass going on all the time. Come now… and everyone will get a lovely voodoo doll, Beelzenef, as a present."

This strange, interesting person barely peaking out of the door was Nekozawa Umehito. I had heard about him, from some girls in my class. I also knew Tamaki was, in a way, afraid of him.

"You know…" I mumbled, but loud enough that almost everyone near could hear me. "I should really join that thing."

The twin's were staring at me, while I sensed a presence simply getting closer and closer. It didn't freak me out until I could feel Tamaki breathing on my neck.

"What the heck --!!!"

"You shouldn't get involved with them," he said, a solemn look on his face. I had to catch Haruhi before the sudden shock gave her a heart attack. "If you are connected to him in any way, without exception, you'll get cursed."

"On what grounds do you say that?" she questioned, still recovering.

"I don't see what's wrong with a guy who can magically make doors appear…" I added quietly.

"Well…" Tamaki continued, "It was during last year's final exams… it's scary to even talk about it…"

Then, he went on explaining about how, one day as he was simply walking down a corridor, he stepped on a hand puppet that was left on the floor. He ended up in a classroom he'd never seen before, with a gibberish language written on the paper before him. I was beginning to wonder if he was right, until Kyoya explained that he had stumbled into the Greek class by accident. Everything after that lost my attention, so I decided I'd rather tend to my customers then listen to Tamaki's nonsense. Then again, there was always nonsense. Why was I still here?

Oh yeah; Kyoya's blackmail.

It seemed the girls were still occupied with the computer pictures….. back to the nonsense I went.

"If you write the name of the person you hate on the back of this doll, that person will suffer much misfortune." Nekozawa explained, despite Tamaki's freaking out.

That gave me an idea. "Wait, so I could --"

"Don't even think about it." Kyoya stopped me. Darn.

Before I knew it, the twins were running around chasing Nekozawa around with a flashlight. The poor guy ran screaming "MUDERERS!" and into his door. The twins, bored as usual, just shrugged and walked to their customers, Tamaki yelling after them.

Something clicked in, and my body froze; the twin's were bored. _Bored._ That was NEVER a good thing for Haruhi and me.

"Hey, Haruhi!" They called, just as I was about to sneak her away. Don't get me wrong, I didn't want to be there, but Haruhi was less likely to fight back some of their plans. "We've got a favour to ask."

"What is it?" Ah, the look on her face showed she was aware. That was good.

"On our next holiday… can we visit your home?"

"Why?"

"We're really interested."

"Then no."

"What?"

"Why?"

"No is no, because you'll just make fun of me."

"What about you, Rei?"

"Hell no, you're not going _near_ my house."

Silence. Until the twin's decided to continue: "Not even if we beg?" We answered no at the same time.

Tamaki came up behind us. "And I was also thinking about greeting your families-"

We said no again.

"Then let's do this!" I turned, seeing Hikaru and Kaoru in those matching hats and wearing matching grins, and frowned. I didn't want to see this again, especially since I was still frustrated with the fact they would even want to see my apartment… "If you guess wrong at the "which one is Hikaru" game, then we get to visit your houses as a penalty."

"Doesn't matter to me," I said, pointing to the left twin. "Either way you're not coming to my house."

Without a word, they shuffled, doing spinning moves I couldn't care less about. I pointed to the right. "Now that's Hikaru."

They made a buzzing noise. "That's wrong!"

"She's not wrong." I looked over to Haruhi before I shrugged. Honestly, I still didn't care what they were doing. "You two are different even though you look the same."

No matter what, a pair of twins would always be different. Different patterns, different voices, different feelings… I frowned again; I could feel the annoyance slowly turn to something else.

"Hey, Haruhi-kun. I really can't tell who's who after they hide the way they part their hair." One of the customers said.

Another asked: "How were you able to tell?"

"I wasn't the only one, Rei-kun could tell as well." I felt her look at me, but I didn't feel like looking back or saying anything, so she turned back to the girls. "Well, let's see… If I had to say, Hikaru's actions are one level meaner than Kaoru's."

What the… what was Haruhi saying in her 'no bad intentions' manner?

Kaoru laughed. "S-sorry, Hikaru."

"Hey," Hikaru said, closing his eyes and sticking up his nose. "I'm just being sincere and saying what I want without hiding anything. Besides, Kaoru is the one that's more ill-natured."

Kaoru froze. "Don't just be saying whatever you want. I'm the one that has to deal with your selfishness all the time."

"I may be the one that brought this up, but you're the one that's digging a deeper hole. Don't like it? Then stop."

"It's because I can't help but see you as being the dumb one. Even though you call them toys, you always make a pass whenever you can. The truth is, you --"

Idiots… why were they arguing? My customers seemed to wonder the same thing's and began to ask me. I didn't know what to say them, but was happy for the excuse not to listen anymore. I was forced back into paying attention when Renge had come from her hole in the floor and attached herself to my arm, whining about the twins being mean to her.

"Weren't you supposed to be in France by now?" I asked her. Her angry mood for the twins changed when she looked up at me. My other designators did not like this…

"It's because when I tried founding a host club in France, it wasn't received well. I don't think they're ready for it. So I decided to come back here to you!"

I sighed. The small calm quickly became chaos when the twin's began to fight again.

"I've had it with you already! Always sneaking into my bed, it's so annoying!"

"I only slept with you because you looked so helplessly lonely, you idiot!"

"You're the idiot!"

In my own personal opinion, we didn't need to hear this. However, the girls were in heaven over this brotherly argument.

"You're worse then me in math!"

"Look who's talking!"

A change of scenery; a large home, a field of flowers, laughter… I shook the thought from my head before the scene became dark.

"You obnoxiously noisy person!

"Erotic imp!"

"Pervert!"

"At least I'm better then you!!" They finished together. "I'm not talking to you anymore!"

When I looked around at the other hosts, I noticed the same expression as my own.

You've got to be kidding me.

--

Our original thought was the argument was going to blow over night and they'd be back to normal the next day. I figured that wouldn't be the case, and knew I'd spend the whole time walking there thinking about it. So, I didn't leave when I usually did, deciding I'd rather face the fan girls than disagreeing twins.

After stepping out of my apartment and locking the door, I heard someone call my name. I recognized the voice as Mrs. Morioka, an older woman who owned this area of apartments, making her my landlady. She was a nice woman, who seemed to take a liking to me since her own son moved away to America and started a family. I wasn't complaining; it was because of that relationship I was able to get a smaller rent by helping her out around the apartments.

"Is everything okay, Mrs. Morioka?" I called to her, making my way down the steps.

"Oh yes, Rei-kun," I heard her say, "There's just something I wanted to show you."

As her faded black hair came into view, I could slowly see what was beside her, and froze when I reached the bottom. "That's… a Yamaha 'TMAX'? Why…"

She chuckled, turning to the black and silver thing beside her. Standing there was a kind scooter, build and handling compared to a motorcycle, the model released in the year 2000. I wasn't about to go into anything like its liquid-cooled DOHC twin with horizontally-opposed reciprocating balancer, mostly because I only remember that because it took me four times reading it to make any sense. All I wanted was a cheap mode of transportation, which I found. My feet.

"I'm sorry to stop you on your way to school, but I found this in my son's garage," she explained. I had moved my way beside it, and was examining the paint. It was obviously not brand new, but was in good condition. "He says he doesn't need it anymore, and it won't run, so it won't be easy to sell it. I figured, Rei-kun's such a handy boy. Why not give it to him?"

I looked at her, shocked. "You're… giving this to me?"

"Is that okay? I hope you can fix it…"

"Yeah, I'm sure I can figure something out, but is this really okay?"

She continued to explain to me that it was fine, but I kept asking, until I finally gave into her. I smiled, thanking her again and saying I didn't know how I could repay her. I knew another reason I was so nice to her.

She didn't have anyone else.

--

I sighed at the letter in my hand, knowing it was something I had to deal with, but decided to do it another time. The pink haired Hikaru and blue haired Kaoru were a bigger issue. I had managed to ignore them for five minutes, until they started knocking over each other's chair. Haruhi, being in the middle, was ignoring them amazingly.

Then they started throwing anything and everything, including my lunch. You can imagine how mad I got.

"Sorry Rei," Hikaru had said, "I'll get you a new lunch because it's my dumb brother's fault."

That, of course, led to another fight. I heard Haruhi sigh, but didn't look up. I had my forehead on the cloth covered cafeteria table, annoyed because of many things. The main reason because she had dragged me here so I'd eat something, even though she knew the watching girls bothered me. I could hear them talk; surprised that both Haruhi and myself were eating there.

In the distance, the twins were arguing over lunch. Apparently they were arguing over food sets.

"I wish they'd stop this…" she mumbled. "Don't you?" I said nothing, but slowly lifted my head to rest my chin on the table instead, watching them fight. I was sure my eyes had appeared sad, before I had managed to fix my stare. "Rei?"

"Why would I care if they fight?" I mumbled silently. "They… should be grateful… and learn when to stop."

Part of me regretted saying that out loud, but most of me didn't. I figured because it was Haruhi, and Haruhi only.

"Are those two still fighting?"

Did I mention each grade has their own cafeteria? Each room was huge, decorated expensively.

I raised my eyes, seeing Tamaki with the rest of the club behind him. Now, everyone in the room was staring at us. Honey came in with a mini cake, telling the twins to share half, but leave him the strawberry. He kept going on about it in such a cute way that Mori-senpai had to drag him out of there before they killed him.

"You're only making things worse," he said. I think that was the most I've heard him say in a while.

"Haruhi, Rei, it's so rare that we eat together!" Tamaki sang. I fought back the urge to say: Duh.

"I was worried about those two," Haruhi explained. "So I tagged along."

I added: "And she dragged me with her, because I don't have a lunch. We usually eat elsewhere since we bring our own…"

Tamaki and I both looked at her bento box, and I heard my stomach growl. The chair to my left moved as I released a sigh, and I didn't need to look to guess who sat beside me. The flaming pink hair was a big give away.

I was too distracted with the high-class plate of food I didn't notice what he was doing, until he lifted my chin and popped the fork in my mouth.

And I was lost in the world of whatever kind of food that was.

Apparently, Kaoru was about to do the same thing with Haruhi, before Hikaru stood over me and took the bite instead. My mouth may have been distracted, but my eyes only say chest. I was confused, but slowly felt the urge to kill rising. Hikaru grabbed Tamaki and made him take a hit of pudding for us (I saw _us_ because I was between them). Next thing I knew, the Hitachiin siblings were flinging things around again.

What did I do? Take Haruhi, her bento (including a tray full of their fancy food) and made a run for the roof.

--

As everyone sat at the table, discussing the twins, I could only sit on the window and stare outside, more flashes of scenes invading my mind.

"Doesn't it mean that their world is getting wider now?" Tamaki had said.

I didn't want to hear anymore. So I started to hum. Nothing too loudly, so I was unsure if the others could hear, but enough to drown out my thoughts. As I hummed, I recalled the scooter, and remembered I needed to make some calls…

--

I was with Haruhi up until she told the twins they could go to her house if they stopped, considering I lived around the corner.

Because suddenly, everything was okay. The Brotherly Love act was back, their only excuse being they were bored.

I was so mad.

"Jerks!" I snapped, whacking any twin I could get my hands on. No one else seemed to argue with this.

"The pink one is Hikaru, right?" One of the customers answered, later that day.

Considering the pervious events, I was close to not saying anything. To continue sitting with my own girls, telling them a story about a cousin I never had, and making them laugh. Like usually though, I lost their attention.

"That's right!" The two twins cheered. The girls giggled and congratulated each other.

"Wrong!" I said, mimicking Hikaru and Kaoru from a few days earlier. Quickly, I smiled, so I didn't seem like I meant to be rude to the girls. "They switched colors overnight."

When Haruhi called my name to help with tea, I took my leave, grinning the whole time. Feeling their eyes on my back.

--

Rei was late.

Even though the two of them have only started spending time together out of school for two weeks, Rei had never been late. So why now, when they were supposed to be heading to school?

It was for a Host Club meeting that Tamaki had suddenly decided to put together, even though that day was a school holiday. Haruhi had watched Rei's face when he had told them, sad.

As she waited in front of her house, she could hear a faint buzzing noise. When she turned to look, a motorcycle had already pulled up in front of her. She quickly remembered that this was one of those fancy scooters. The rider took his helmet off, revealing the familiar grin of her friend.

"Ready to go, Haru-chan?"

Haruhi didn't know what to say, even after she was given the matching helmet. Rei explained how she got it, laughed, and teased about how she doesn't know if she could afford gas. Haruhi held on as they sped forward, weaving their way through an alleyway.

She was enjoying the feeling, the speed and the wind against them. Haruhi began to think of how the girl's would act if Rei brought it on a school day; it would probably help her bad boy image. When she thought of that, she realized something.

"Rei!" she called out over the buzz of the motor. "I think you went the wrong way!" Haruhi waited. No answer. "Rei?"

"Sorry, Haruhi!" Rei laughed. It was a real laugh, one Haruhi barely heard from her. "I'm afraid I've made us other plans for today!"

Haruhi tried to argue, but the sudden increase of speed startled her into holding on. From the blurred images, (and a couple close encounters she knew Rei was doing on purpose) she could tell they were entering the business district.

All she could imagine was the reaction their blond-senpai would have when he realized they weren't going to show.

In the meantime, that's exactly what was going on.

"Kyoya!!!" Tamaki cried out. "Why aren't they here?!"

Kyoya pushed out his glasses, deciding on a reason for the two being thirty minutes late. Like usual, he figured Rei was the mastermind. He'd find a way for her to pay later. "My guess is they decided to skip this meeting."

"What?! How… how could my daughters disrespect the club so much!?!"

"Tamaki, get off."

* * *

**Annnnd that's where I'm ending it. X3 Hope you enjoyed! R&R!!**

**Oh, and look up Yamaha TMAX for info on her scooter. :P**


	9. Day Off, Part One

**Tsunagaru: Chapter Eight – Part One**

**Day Off  
**

**I AM ALIVE. I'm so sorry! Life has been so chaotic, and every time I sit down to write this, I only get a little done. So I've decided to update everyone on both of my stories just to let people know I live! I think I'm going to split chapters to make it easier for me! I always feel weird uploading chapters that are less than 3000 words. ;; **

**Please R&R! **

* * *

"Koneko-chan…" the boy whined.

She placed a piece of vanilla cake, decorated with strawberries, on a plate and turned around. "Just this one last recipe, then I promise that's it."

Rei watched her, and she could see the pleading in his eyes. _Let me go._ That's probably what he was thinking, but she knew he was too nice for that. So she smiled, until he surrendered. When he sighed and bit into the cake, she was happy. He always agreed to spend time with her like this, would even skip his classes. Koneko didn't trust anyone else's opinion on her recipes.

But today felt different.

Instead of teasing her or complaining about club activities like he always did, he was unusually quiet. Rei was trying to hide it, but every time she turned away she could see how exhausted he looked.

"Rei-kun, why are you so tired?" Their eyes met, but Rei quickly sighed and looked away. "Does it have anything to do with the Chairman?"

Instantly, by the discontent on his face, she figured out that was one reason. When she had first seen him today, he had been stepping out of the school Chairman's office with one of the teachers. The teacher seemed to be content, but he was annoyed and escaped when the teacher turned away.

"Part of it." Rei finally admitted.

"What happened? You didn't look happy."

She saw him hesitate again, but he continued. "They had something to say about my absences, but since I'm still at the top of my classes they'll let it slide…"

"You sound like there's more to it."

A sigh of annoyance. "Yeah. Apparently I'm not being social enough for an Ouran Student, even though I'm in the Host Club."

"What do they want you to do about it?"

"They said I have a week to join one of this school's sport teams, or else they'll consider expulsion."

* * *

It wasn't fair for one person to be so tired.

I hadn't realized exactly how tired I was until Koneko-chan had pointed it out to me the previous day. So as I was sitting in my fourth class, making a list of possible sports, I was trying not to fall asleep. Again, the teacher wasn't here, and my class work was done. The twin's were bothering Haruhi, but I knew it was only a matter of time before they came to me. Ever since they had their fight, the two had insisted we spent lunch with them everyday. The only way we could get away from them was if my kidnapping plan was successful. Most of the time it worked, other times we weren't so lucky.

As I expected, I was too distracted to save either of us from being dragged down the hall the second the lunch bell went off.

"Where's your lunch?" Hikaru asked, placing his tray on the table before sitting beside me. His twin sat across from him, beside Haruhi. This was their way to make sure neither of us could get away.

"Don't have one."

Kaoru tried to switch his lunch tray with Haruhi's bento, but she kept it out of his reach. "Why not?"

"I just don't."

Hikaru paused, taking a bite from his expensively decorated lunch. "It's not good for our toy to starve."

"Then good thing I'm not your toy."

"You are whether you admit it or not." He slid his tray towards me.

I eyed him, then the tray, before pushing it back. "I don't want it."

"Just take it; Tono will be upset if you miss another day of club activities."

It's not like I wanted to, actually that was a lie, but I couldn't afford to miss Host Club activities or Kyoya would be at my neck again. Between the Club and the things I did after school, I didn't know how I was going to be able to balance a sport too. I couldn't quit the club because they knew my secret, and I couldn't say no to a sport if that's what they wanted. Blackmail on both sides. I wanted to know if the school and its Chairman actually cared for my future or was playing with one of the few students who has ever managed to get a scholarship. Either way, it was frustrating.

"That doesn't have anything to do with not having a lunch."

He shrugged, taking another bite. "If you don't want any, fine. But this Foie Gras stuff isn't that bad."

I tried to hold back saying something, but it was impossible. "You realize you're eating duck liver, right?"

Apparently he didn't. His face instantly contorted into one similar like a child who had found out what they were eating wasn't what they thought it was. His brother, who was happy to pick something else, laughed at the look and got teased in the process. Female swooning pursued.

* * *

"Rei-kun, where did you go yesterday?"

"We came but you weren't here."

As I was thinking of the right thing to say, Kyoya's eyes fell on me, watching my every move. I was dead if I didn't come up with something good.

"I'm sorry ladies, but I just realized I couldn't come yesterday."

The customer to my right pouted at me. As much as they always let on that they liked my rebelling attitude, I really had to think of something they could go on. "What happened?"

Quickly, I pulled her to me, lifting her chin to meet my eyes. "If I don't take breaks," I moved to whisper in her ear, "I don't think I'll be able to control myself."

Kyoya walked back to his costumers, obviously content with my answer. After a few minutes the girls went from swooning to discussing their favourite auction pictures. Each host had a set amount of pictures taken to be auctioned off to the customers, and even though I had no idea how much these girls were going for I knew it had to be a lot. Kyoya was in an unusually good mood.

When the club ended, Haruhi and I finished our cleaning routines as Tamaki gave the usual pep talk to his hosts. Tamaki was loud enough for us to hear him, but I knew they couldn't hear us.

"Hey, Haruhi?"

She slightly nodded her head, trying not to make it too obvious. We spent a lot of Club time like this, talking in secret. We made that mistake once, and the girls loved to tell us what a couple they thought we'd make. Tamaki was very upset that his 'daughters' were having a relationship behind his back, but he realized what an idiotic mistake that was when he _accidently _ran into the wall.

"There's a sale on beni-shouga this Sunday, so we should definitely pick some up."

It was past the point of asking to go together, since it's been months since we started. Every Sunday morning, we went to the market. When we got back, I would help her with her chores and cook for her and her father, and in return I could use their shower and stay the night. It was a nice feeling, knowing how well we got along. I guess being in the same position helps more then you think it would.

"That sounds like a great idea."

* * *

"Don't you think you bought too much?"

I laughed, oddly content and excited after our shipping trip, a large paper bag balanced in my hands. When I turned to answer, Haruhi had to stop the bag from failing over, even with plastic bags in her own hand. She already had to stop me from walking into a pole because I couldn't see where I was going.

"Are you kidding? There's no way one could have enough beni-shouga!"

She joined in my laughter. "It's just pickled ginger."

"Maybe so, but it makes a lot of recipes taste better in my opinion. It's been a while since I've had decent yakisoba, and there aren't any festivals coming up soon... How about that? Do you feel like yakisoba for dinner?"

"We might as well since you bought so much of that stuff."

I laughed. "Yeah, yeah, I got it. What about you? We go to Marutomi, and you spend fifteen minutes staring at the bento dividers?"

Haruhi didn't like her food to touch, like many people, but she was very picky with her choice of dividers.

I waited for her reply, but was answered with silence. "Haruhi?"

"What's going on in front of my apartment?"

"Eh?" I tried to lower the bag. When it didn't work, I chuckled. "I think you're going to have to tell me that."

Haruhi's face was frozen. I could hear the muttering of a crowd ahead. Had there been an accident? I didn't hear any ambulance or police cars, so maybe –

"Rei-san, we should run."

"Why? What happened?"

"Ahh, so this is Haruhi's house?"

This time, I felt my own body freeze. My left eye twitched as I recognized that voice.

"It's pretty big. I didn't expect this."

There was no way this could be considered fair. Sunday was our only day of peace, and was now being invaded by the one group we needed the peace from. Not only that, but I did not want them to see me, of all people. Haruhi was the only one who knew my situation that I could act female around, and I enjoyed letting it show. Hair down, pulled away from my face with a hair clip. Makeup, as thin as a layer as it was, and a bra instead of bindings. Since I didn't own a lot of feminine clothing so I was stuck with the only pair of capris I owned, and a zip-up short sleeved hoodie from my male wardrobe. Ever since we'd start spending time together, I had managed to pick up a few new things. Under the hoodie I was wearing a tank top, and the sandals I had found on sale.

If they saw me now, I could never live it down. Scratch that, the twins would never let me live it down.

"Haruhi's home is most likely just one of these units."

"Haruhi, let's go." As I started walking backwards, careful not to bring attention to myself, I realized Haruhi wasn't moving. "Haruhi?"

I heard Tamaki's voice over everything else, loud as usual. "This is nothing more than a 'we were in the area and just came by to say hello' type of casual visit." Casual? What was so casual about a bunch of rich kids showing up in such a neighbourhood? "We're absolutely not here to research about the quality of life of the Fujioka family!" Yeah, cause that's not obvious. "Words like _pathetic_, _tight_, and _ragged_ are all forbidden!``

I heard Honey and the twins call out in their enthusiasm. Trying to keep my face hidden and finding Haruhi weren't easy.

"Most importantly, you must not make Haruhi and her father feel like you want to go home –"

"Then just go home right now!"

My face twitched again. Haruhi had just doomed us both.

"Ha-Haruhi!"

"That plainness is good!"

"Shut up! Go away!"

One step back. Two steps back. Tamaki panicked and started to blame the twins for Haruhi's language. I hadn't been noticed yet, and I wanted it to stay that way. Like someone backing away from a predator, I couldn't make any sudden movements.

"Haru-chan, who are you with?"

Honey-senpai, you could be so cruel. I kept the bag in front of my face and willed my feet to run, but I was frozen again. I was both terrified and furious at the same time.

"Oh that's…"

"It's not fair to keep a friend from us, Haruhi."

"Yeah, especially since she looks like a cutie."

Oh dear God, the twins voices were getting closer. I could feel my legs shaking.

"Does this mean my daughter has a girlfriend I don't know about? Oh Haruhi, you must introduce us!"

Senpai, don't come near me.

"Senpai, that's –"

Even if Haruhi had been trying to stop it, it was too late. Tamaki had already grabbed hold of the bag while yelling things about this new 'friend' making Haruhi more girly and was pulling it away from my face. "Oh dear girl! It's very nice to meet… you…?"

My face was frozen in terrifying anger that I could see reflect in his horrified eyes.

"**Why… are… you… here?**"

Tamaki screamed, the twins running around behind him yelling "Demon!"

I pitied all of the onlookers who must have thought I really was a demon.


End file.
